
Class _/l^^-^j^ 
(kpigM"-^ 



COP««IGHT DEPOSrr. 



SKETCHES 



OP 



ALABAMA HISTORY 



BY 

JOEL CAMPBELL DuBOSE, M. A. 



(Copyright, 1901.) 




> O •»"!>"■) 



PHILADELPHIA: 

Eldredge & Brother, 

No. 17 North Seventh Street. 

1901. 



THf LiSRARY OF 

CCMGSESS. 
Two CoKicd Received 

OCT. 24 1901 

CLASS ciwm- "^^J- 
COPY a 



TO 



THE GIRLS AND BOYS OF ALABAMA, 



THIS VOLUME 



AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 



BY THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE 



Contact with the people and years of experience in the 
school-room have demonstrated to the author the need of a 
convenient volume giving an outline of the leading facts and 
impulses of Alabama history. The desire to supply this need 
has induced him to make this collation and to offer it to the 
public. If it will help to stimulate investigation and to foster 
a genuine interest in the history of Alabama, it will serve a 
useful purpose. 

It is not possible, in so small a volume, to treat the many 
events and interesting characters that have marked the history 
of this great commonwealth. The author regrets the incom- 
pleteness that must necessarily attach to a compilation so 
brief. His knowledge of human nature convinces him that 
the discussion of a few men and a few incidents with more 
than passing mention will create a more abiding interest and 
subserve a higher purpose than will a hasty treatise of many 
men and many circumstances. He has therefore attempted 
to make distinct the life and character of the master spirits 
whom he has selected to represent the leaders in historic 
tendencies. 

The '' Syllabus" at the close of the book embodies, chrono- 
logically, many of the most important events in the history 
of the State, and relieves the chapters of much that would 



iv PREFACE. 

fatigue the minds of the young. The chapters are cumulative, 
and are arranged with a view to giving a fair impression of 
the growth of the State and of the spirit that animated the 
people in all the years of its history. 

The author acknowledges his obligations for courtesies and 
assistance in consulting authorities to Mr. A. K. Spofford 
and Mr. A. P. C. Griffin, of the Library of Congress; for 
encouragement and valued suggestions, to Colonel John 
Witherspoon DuBose; for criticism of manuscript and cor- 
rection of the proof, and for numerous methods of help and 
encouragement, to Thomas McAdory Owen, Esq., the Director 
of the Department of Archives and History of the state of 
Alabama; and for inspiration and sustained effort, to his 
pupils and his children, for whom he cherishes the patriot's 
hope that through intelligence and virtue they may con- 
tribute largely to the magnanimity and integrity of our State 
and our glorious Republic. 

Trusting that all lovers of Alabama — citizens, parents, 
teachers, and the dwellers beyond its borders — will appre- 
ciate the effort and spirit of this volume, the author sends it 
forth on its mission of education. 

JOEL CAMPBELL DuBOSE. 

Birmingham, Alabama, 
September 26, 1901. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. 
I. 

11. 



III. 

IV. 
V. 

V": 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 

XXI. 

XXII. 

XXIII. 

XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI. 



PAGE 

Hernando De Soto 7 

Mobile under the French, 1699 to 1763; British, 

1763 to 1780 ; and Spanish, 1780 to 1813 .... 13 

Mobile, the Emporium of Alabama 21 

Alexander McGillivray 27 

William Weatherford and Pushmataha .... 34 

General Samuel Dale 42 

Andrew Jackson in Alabama 50 

George Strother Gaines 57 

The French Colony in Marengo County 66 

William Kufus King 72 

Alexander Beaufort Meek 78 

The State Bank 84 

William Lowndes Yancey 89 

Henry Washington Hilliard 99 

The Ordinance of Secession 105 

The War between the States 112 

Admiral Kaphael Semmes 118 

General Joseph Wheeler 125 

Miss Emma Sansom 132 

The Reconstruction Period 136 

The Negroes 145 

The History of Alabama Schools 151 

Professor Seth Smith Mellen 164 

Reforms and Reformers 174 

Alabama in Geography and Industries 184 

Alabama in Politics, 1763-1820 203 

V 



vi CONTENTS. 

CHAP. PAGE 

XXVII. Alabama in Politics, 1821-1865 211 

XXVIII. Alabama in Politics, 1865-1901 219 

XXIX. John Tyler Morgan 229 

XXX. Alabama in Literature 234 

XXXI. Alabama in Literature 242 

XXXII. Alabama in Literature 250 

APPENDIX. 

Events in the History of Alabama 260 

Statistics of Counties of Alabama 270 

GrOVERNORS OF MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY, ALABAMA TERRITORY, 

AND State of Alabama 273 

Index 275 



SKETCHES 

OF 

ALABAMA HISTORY. 



CHAPTER I. 
HERNANDO DE SOTO. 

Hernando de Soto, a Spanish cavalier who had shared 
ill the glor}^ and spoils of Pizarro in Peru, obtained from 
Charles V., Emperor of Spain, authority to subjugate, at 
his own expense, the vast region then known as Florida, 
which embraced most of the Spanish possessions in the 
present borders of the United States of America. Rumor 
pronounced this the "richest country in the world, filled 
with imperial palaces gemmed with gold and rubies, 
diamonds and pearls." 

With six hundred daring companions, " the flower and 
chivalry of the Peninsula," De Soto set sail, April 6, 1538, 
from the port of San Lucar, in Spain. He spent nearly a 
year on the island of Cuba, where new troops and new 
fortunes were added to his enterprise. - 

In May, 1539, De Soto landed a thousand men on the 
coast of Florida, along Tampa Bay. Everything that 
wisdom and experience could suggest had been provided 
for the expedition. De Soto yearned to surpass Cortez 



8 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

in glory and Pizarro in wealth. His officers and men 
shared his enthusiasm. 

The cruelties perpetrated by De Ayllon/ De Narvaez,'-^ 
and others had wrought a general defiance among the 
Indian tribes, who regarded the Spaniards as intruders 
and murderers. History records no deeds braver nor 
more desperate than were done by the natives of Florida 
in their efforts to drive back the Spaniards and to pre- 
serve the integrity and independence of their country. 
Plumed warriors everywhere offered their lives as glad 
sacrifices to battle, but De Soto was everywhere invin- 
cible and irresistible. Valor in unprotected bodies and 
with simple bows and clubs could not withstand the su- 
perb armament and impetuous attack of the Spaniards. 

Onward pressed De Soto through forests, fields, villages, 
swamps, rivers, and morasses; capturing, killing, burning, 
desolating, desecrating ; doing harsh things, he said, only 
when the safety of his army required it, but coolly demand- 
ing and expecting of the Indians services and surrenders 
both galling and humiliating. Hundreds were chained 
and carried along to do the hard work of the army. 
When death or disease reduced the number of these 
menials and baggage-carriers, a levy from the next tribe 
supplied their places. 

Juan Ortiz had come over with De Narvaez and had 
been captured by the Indians. He w^as recovered by 



^ Lucas Vasquez De Ayllon, a Spanish adventurer, in 1520, cruelly 
kidnapped Indians on the shores of South Carolina and carried them 
as slaves to work in the mines on the island of St. Domingo. 

2 Pamphilo De Narvaez, a Spaniard, in 1528, made a disastrous expe- 
dition into Florida. He was lost in a storm on the Gulf of Mexico. 
Four of his followers suffered years of hardships in passing westward to 
Mexico. The rest, except Ortiz, perished at sea. 



HERNANDO BE SOTO. 9 

Nieto, a trooper of De Soto. Ortiz acted as interpreter 
until death met him west of the Mississippi. 

De Soto spent the first winter near the site of Tallahassee, 
the capital of Florida. The next spring he made a zigzag 
march through Georgia, and on July 2d, 1540, he entered 
the present bounds of Alabama, in what is now Cherokee 
County. In Costa, the first Indian village, Spanish greed 
began the pillage of homes. The Indians resented this. 
The chief had given a royal welcome to De Soto, who 
seized a club and began beating his own men, thus win- 
ning favor with the Indians and averting serious danger 
from himself. By flattering words he beguiled the paci- 
fied chief and warriors into the Spanish camp and made 
them prisoners until the storm of savage fury subsided. 

Numerous reports of yellow metal were brought to the 
Spaniards, but investigation discovered only specimens 
of copper — the result which so often grievously disap- 
pointed the " roving expedition of gallant freebooters in 
quest of a fortune." 

After a brief rest, De Soto exchanged presents with the 
liberated chief and his warriors, crossed the Coosa River, 
and marched down its eastern bank to Talle. Here he 
was kindly entertained by the chief. He passed promptly 
into the fertile and populous province of Coosa, of whose 
wealth and power the remote Indian tribes had told him. 
All reports agreed that it would furnish not only the 
much-desired gold but also boundless provisions for men 
and horses. With eager hearts the Spaniards entered it. 
In battle and in travel, in abundance and in want, they 
had been cheered by reports of Coosa. 

It was mid-summer. Woodlands waved with beauty 
and echoed with the songs of birds. Full barns, growing 
crops, a delightful climate, pure waters, and blue skies 



10 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

added sweet charm to the welcome extended by the peace- 
ful, contented Indians. " Amid scenes like these " the 
Spaniards wended their march to the village of Coosa, 
which sat upon the bank of the river. Its chief, with 
his thousand warriors, all magnificently attired in marten 
skins scented with musk, met De Soto and received him 
cordially into their homes. The chief desired him to plant 
a colony in the province and make it his home. Despite 
this courtesy De Soto imprisoned the chief and his prin- 
cipal warriors, and carried away a long train of his sub- 
jects to bear the baggage and provisions. 

The route of march wound through many villages of 
the province of Coosa. The frightened natives in forest 
hiding-places looked with wonder and sad forebodings 
upon Spanish chivalry and armaments, and wafted sighs 
of mournful sympathy and dread as they beheld their 
friends in chains and irons bearing the burdens of the 
army of strangers. 

On September 10, 1540, the Spaniards entered the 
walled and terraced town of Tallase, which reposed on 
the banks of the Tallapoosa River. Here came the son 
of Tuskaloosa to invite De Soto to visit Mauvilla, the cap- 
ital of Tuskaloosa's vast extent of territories lying along 
the bank of the Alabama and the Tombigbee Rivers. 
Crossing the river, De Soto pushed onward toward Mau- 
villa. After three days he met Tuskaloosa himself waiting 
to join his company. Tuskaloosa w^as of gigantic propor- 
tions. His immense form w^as borne by the largest pack- 
horse in the army, and even then his long legs dangled 
until his feet almost touched the ground. He was so 
haughty that De Soto put a guard over him. This made 
him indignant, and on reaching Mauvilla he walked dis- 
dainfully away and was lost among his warriors. Evi- 



HERNANDO DE SOTO. 



11 



dently he had plotted to entrap the Spaniards and anni- 
hilate them. 

Spanish efforts to recover the person of Tuskaloosa 
brought forth the war-whoop and battle-cry for the dead- 
liest conflict in the annals of Indian warfare. Ten thousand 
native sons, fired by the desperate courage of Tuskaloosa, 
met the fierce shock of battle. All day the battle raged. 



' ''-'•^mm^^K^^^'ilM 




1 

-:1 


■ 



Tallassee Palls (at the present time). 



Toward evening the Spaniards set fire to the houses, and 
flame and smoke added to the horrors of battle. At sunset 
Mauvilla was in ruins. The Spaniards were victors. At 
least five thousand Indians, eighty-two Spaniards, and 
forty-five horses lay dead. Tuskaloosa perished with his 
warriors in battle about his capital. 

The Spaniards lost their baggage, all their medicines 



12 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

and equipments for their military hospital, and the wine 
and wheat for the eucharist. Having learned that many 
of his soldiers would leave him if they should ever reach 
Ochus (Mobile), where Maldonado and Arias ^ were to meet 
him with winter supplies, De Soto turned to the northwest, 
still hugging the delusive phantom that somewhere in the 
untraversed west he would discover a country skilled in 
arts and rich in spoils. 

Through Pafalaya (now Clarke, Marengo, and Greene 
Counties) he marched, having to fight his passage across 
the Warrior River ; then on into the present Mississippi 
he pressed, fighting the Chickasaws, the Alibamons, and 
other tribes. At Chickasaw Bluff, near Memphis, he dis- 
covered the Mississippi Eiver, crossed it, penetrated far to 
the west, and returned, after many adventurous and vain 
explorations for gold and silver, to winter and to die on 
its bank, and to be buried in its waters, having discovered 
in all his wanderings '"nothing so remarkable as his 
burying-place." 

Only three hundred and twenty survivors of the expe- 
dition found their way down the Mississippi and on the 
Gulf of Mexico to Panuco, in Mexico, to bear tidings of the 
sufferings and disappointments which attended De Soto as 
he lifted the veil of mystery that history might have a 
brief view of the homes and customs of unknown Indians. 
Some of the survivors returned to Spain. Others sought 
fortune in Mexico and Peru. Dona Isabel, the wife of De 
Soto, after learning the fate of her gallant husband, died 
of a broken heart. 

^ Maldonado and Arias were captains of the provision vessels. 



CHAPTER II. 

MOBILE UNDER THE FRENCH, 1699 TO 1763 ; BRIT- 
ISH, 1763 TO 1780; AND SPANISH, 1780 TO 1813. 

It is probable that the Bay of Achusi, where Maldonado 
was to meet De Soto in 1540, was Mobile Bay. Inasmuch 
as De Soto discovered no gold nor silver, Spanish colonists 
sought other sections, and so the region about Mobile was 
not colonized for more than a hundred and fifty years 
after the disastrous expedition of De Soto. 

In 1699, the French cast anchor off Mobile Point, 
sounded the channel, coasted along Dauphin Island 
(which they named Massacre Island, from the immense 
heaps of human bones and skulls found on it), examined 
the shores of the mainland, and then sailed westward to 
settle on the Mississippi. 

The leader of this expedition was Pierre Le Moyne 
De Iberville, a gallant Canadian sea-captain, who had 
won many honors in the service of his beloved France 
and who had lately whipped the English in Hudson Bay. 
He was not pleased with the conditions of nature on the 
marshy banks of the Mississippi ; they were unfavorable 
to a settlement, and he returned to the east in search of 
a site. He planted Fort De Maurepas on Biloxi Bay, the 
first French settlement established on the southern shores 
of the United States along the Gulf of Mexico. This 
occurred more than ninety years after the first English 
settlement in Virginia. 

La Salle had floated down the mighty Mississippi and 

13 



14 



SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 



had revealed the great advantages it guaranteed to the 
nation that would colonize its southern banks. He im- 
pressed the French that colonies along the Mississippi 
uniting with their colonies in Canada, would lay the 
foundations for the French empire in America which 
would become too mighty to be resisted, and which would 
gradually close in on the English until France would 
embrace the New World from the Mississippi River to 
the Atlantic Ocean. 

Iberville made several voyages to and from France 
in the interest of the colony, but one fatal mistake affected 
not only the immediate comfort of the colonists but also 
the permanency of French supremacy in any portion of 

America. The colonists were not 
self-reliant; they depended for 
supplies upon shipments from 
France and the Island of St. 
Domingo ; they did not culti- 
vate the soil and raise the corn 
and other products needed. As 
a consequence, famine, sickness, 
and death followed. Sauvolle, 
the first commandant, died. Jean 
Baptiste Le Moyne De Bienville, 
a brother of Iberville, succeeded 
to the command, and to him 
more than to anj^one else was due whatever of good 
fortune attended the colony afterward. 

The situation at Biloxi was said to be unhealthy, and 
the settlement was ordered to be removed to a point near 
the present Tw^enty-seven-mile Bluff on the Mobile River. 
Here Fort Louis was erected in Januar}^ 1702. Iberville 
named it Mobile, probably from remnants of the tribe 




Jean Baptiste Le Moyne 
De Bienville. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF MOBILE. 16 

at Mauvilla, where De Soto fought so desperately the 
brave Tuskaloosa. The surrounding country was beau- 
tiful in appearance and rich in soil ; fir, pine, oak, 
cypress, magnolia, and other trees gave attraction and 
charm. Idols of worship and other relics of departed 
tribes were there discovered. 

Bienville, as commandant, had much to encourage and 
much to depress him ; he knew that his brother Iberville 
was influential at court, and would aid him with sup- 
plies; but both saw the necessity of crops, and they 
begged the French government for laborers instead of 
adventurers. Indians were captured and put to work 
in the fields. Negro slaves were introduced, but laborers 
were still too scarce for the needed crops. Adversity 
overshadowed the colony and brought out the growlers, 
who had contributed but little and wanted much. 

Iberville died in 1706; all responsibility fell upon 
Bienville, who had some loyal, congenial helpers, but 
many bitter enemies, whose efforts tended solely to his 
defeat. 

In 1709, a rise in the river submerged both town and 
fort and destroyed the outlying crops. Bienville then 
selected the present site of Mobile. After a j^ear's work 
in laying off lots, building houses, and erecting batteries, 
the colony abandoned the old fort and removed to the 
new. Even the Indians living about the old fort left 
their homes and moved down to the new Fort Conde. 

The French were generally more successful than the 
English in winning and holding the friendship of the 
Indians, but the Alabamas, living along the river to which 
they gave their name, proved intractable foes ; they mur- 
dered the messengers whom Bienville sent among them 
for provisions, and provoked hostilities in every conceiv- 



16 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

able way, until he led among them a force to destroy their 
villages, capture their braves, and offer rewards for the 
scalps of all who refused obedience to the treaty of peace. 

Davion, Foucat, Tonti, St. Cosme, St. Dennis, La Salle, 
and other missionaries from France and Canada estab- 
lished missions on the Mississippi River and its branches, 
travelling much among the Indians, and preaching the 
gospel of " Peace on earth, good will to men." These 
exercised a strong influence over " the children of the 
forest," often keeping them in peace and quiet when war 
and massacre brooded over their dusky councils. They 
did not always succeed in preserving peace. Many of the 
missionaries suffered death and torture, but their Christian 
zeal mixed with the patriot's dream, and no danger was 
sufficient to check their labors of love. 

Mobile was for five years (1713 to 1717) governed nomi- 
nally by Cadillac and L'Epinay, but actually by Bienville 
whom the people and the Indians trusted implicitly. 
Cadillac and L'Epinay were governors appointed by 
Antoine Crozat, a wealthy merchant to whom Louis 
XIV. had granted the Louisiana Colony. 

In 1714, Fort Toulouse was established to control the 
warlike Creek and Alabama tribes, with whom English 
traders had been tampering; this fort occupied a com- 
manding position four miles below Wetumpka, on the 
neck of land between the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers; 
it protected French interests for fifty years. 

When Crozat learned of the failure of the great mer- 
cantile schemes for which he had undertaken the manage- 
ment of the colony, he surrendered his charter to the 
king. Bienville was reinstated in command, October 17, 
1717 ; he founded New Orleans, on the Mississippi River, 
in March, 1718. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF MOBILE. 17 

The population of Mobile had slowly increased. The 
climate was too warm and enervating for European 
laborers ; negroes were imported, and through their labors 
the colony began to prosper. Its management had been 
committed to the Western or India Company. Trade 
had been very much restricted by the arbitrary laws of 
Crozat, and it was still further restricted by the auto- 
cratic provisions of the India Company. Prices of sale 
and purchase were fixed. As a consequence, goods were 
smuggled to the Spanish trading-post at Pensacola. The 
English traders also encroached upon French colonial 
territory, diverted as much as possible the Indian trade, 
and fanned the fires of Indian hostilities against the 
French. As prosperity began to dawn, John Law's " Mis- 
sissippi Scheme " collapsed and brought renewed distress 
and destitution.^ Bienville was recalled to France under 
the malicious charge that he was responsible for the 
troubles of the colony ; before leaving for France he 
issued the "Black Code," which forbade any but the 
Catholic religion in the colony and forced all Jews to 
leave. 

1 John Law, a brilliant Scotch adventurer and gambler, induced 
Philip, Duke of Orleans, the notorious regent of France during the mi- 
nority of Louis XV., to establish the Koyal Bank of Paris, and with the 
profits from the issue of paper money to pay off the enormous debt of 
France. Immediate and immense success attended the venture. Law 
then formed the West India Company for trade and colonization in 
Louisiana. Marvellous stories of gold and silver and profits in trade 
lured the nation. Shares of the stock rose to forty times their cost. 
Enormous fortunes followed speculation in the stock. But no gold-laden 
ships returned to France. Public confidence was shaken, and financial 
panic swept away the baseless fabric of fortunes. Law fled from the 
country, and became an outcast. Destitution, suffering, and dismay 
spread throughout France and her colonies upon the bursting of this 
"Mississippi Scheme." 
2 



18 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Perier was appointed governor (1726 to 1733). The col- 
ony began to thrive again, but Perier's eight years of 
authority gave unsatisfactory results. Bienville was sent 
back (1733) from France to assume command ; his plans 
met with failure ; disappointments crowded him ; he failed 
to subdue the Chickasaws, and he requested to be recalled 
to France ; he wrote the minister at home a most digni- 
fied letter, expressing the hope of better fortune to his 
successor than had been accorded to himself Fair and 
firm in all his dealings with the Indians, he inspired their 
love and respect. For thirty years he governed the col- 
ony, loved it always, and wept when in his old age it was 
ceded to Spain. He died in France in 1768, honored and 
beloved. 

With varying fortune but with gradual growth Mobile 
passed a score of years after the retirement of Bienville. 
By the Treaty of Paris, 1763, it fell to Great Britain and 
was incorporated into West Florida. 

On November 3, 1762, nearly four months before the 
Treaty of Paris, France secretly ceded to Spain, her ally 
in the war against England, the Island of Orleans and 
all of her Louisiana territory west of the Mississippi River. 
Mobile was, therefore, the base of supplies for British con- 
trol of the eastern half of the Mississippi Valley. From 
Mobile were dispatched many expeditions that extended 
British influence and confirmed British possessions, for 
the French, and the Indians under Pontiac, stubbornly 
resented and resisted English rule. Not until Major 
Robert Farmer and Captain Stirling drove the French 
across the Mississippi River into the village of St. Louis 
did the English complete the occupation of the eastern 
Mississippi Basin. 

George Johnstone, the first English governor of West 



THE SETTLEMENT OF MOBILE. 19 

Florida, changed the name of Fort Conde, the military 
fortification of Mobile, to Fort Charlotte, in honor of 
Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III. of England. In 
March, 1765, the English began the purchase of lands 
from the Indians, thus inaugurating the system which 
was to make West Florida and the whole southwest terri- 
tory available for white settlement. Trade increased^ 
agriculture and general business throve despite storms, 
sickness, and other disasters , the people appreciated their 
new masters. Loyalty supplanted the dreams of revolu- 
tion, and faltered not even when the American Colonies 
defied the power of England in the Revolutionary War. 

In 1779, England declared war against Spain. Don 
Bernardo Galvez, the young Spanish governor of Louisi- 
ana, made a dash upon the English forts in the south, 
and captured them one after another before the British 
could interfere. Mobile fell into his hands on March 14, 
1780; Pensacola, on May 9, 1781. Thus passed English 
supremacy from the Gulf coast. 

Mobile remained a Spanish stronghold for three decades. 
Spanish commandants succeeded one another in such 
rapid changes as to unsettle the people. Spain declared 
war against France to counteract the influence of the 
visit of Genet to America; she invited the annexation 
of Kentucky to her territory, made extensive land-grants, 
favored the great commercial firm of Panton, Leslie and 
Company, and claimed 32° 28' north latitude as the boun- 
dary of her territory between the Chattahoochee and the 
Mississippi. The United States claimed down to 31°, and 
taking advantage of Spain's entanglements in the Napo- 
leonic wars, pressed the claim through Thomas Finckney 
at the Treaty of Madrid, 1795, until Spain yielded it. 

Spanish authorities at Mobile and Pensacola interfered 



20 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

with the running of the hne of 31°, placing every obstacle 
possible in the way of the engineer, Andrew Ellicott; 
but the survey was completed in 1799, and Ellicott's 
Stone, set up below St. Stephens, indicated to settlers under 
what flag they lived. Americans above 31° north lati- 
tude suffered great inconvenience and expense because of 
enormous duties on freights passing through mouths of 
rivers under Spanish control ; prices were increased about 
fourfold by freights and double duties. The United States 
claimed the Perdido River as the eastern limit of the 
Louisiana purchase. Spain claimed that Mobile had 
been completely severed from Louisiana by the Treaty 
of Paris in 1763, and that she held Mobile by right of 
conquest from the British in 1780. General James Wilkin- 
son moved against it with American troops by order of 
the United States, and captured it April 15, 1813. The 
stars and stripes floated from her fort and proclaimed her 
passage under the protection of the powerful American 
Republic. 



CHAPTER III. 
MOBILE THE EMPORIUM OF ALABAMA. 

Mobile County was formed out of Washington County 
in 1813 by proclamation of David Holmes, governor of 
the Mississippi Territory. 

Mobile is the metropolis of Alabama. For more than 
a hundred years, as the focus of colonial life, she sent 
her couriers of civilization into the wilds of the country, 
and wielded an influence as no other city on the Gulf 
coast had done. As soon as attached to the United States 
she began to grow in commercial and strategic importance. 
The British envied her transfer to the United States and 
connived with Spain for her recapture. An English fleet, 
supported by a land force, was driven back from Fort 
Bowyer on Mobile Point by Major Lawrence. In Novem- 
ber, 1814, General Jackson stormed and captured Pensacola 
from the combined forces of England and Spain. Two 
months later (January 8, 1815) he won the battle of New 
Orleans, defeating with a comparatively small force the 
splendidly equipped British army under General Packen- 
ham. Fort Bowyer fell before the British, but peace had 
been declared by the Treaty of Ghent, and the Britons 
were recalled to their island home. 

Mobile was incorporated as a city by the Legislature 
of Alabama, December 19, 1819. Her favorable position 
on Mobile Bay opened her business houses to river craft 
and ocean steamers. 

The rich lands bordering the Alabama and Tombigbee 

21 



22 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Rivers and their tributaries were early occupied by intel- 
ligent, thrifty planters, who conducted business through 
commission merchants and factors in Mobile. Happy 
negroes, on farms of abundant harvest, labored for the pro- 
duction of corn, cotton, pumpkins, melons, fruits, potatoes, 
pease, pindars, and everything else that responded to cul- 
tivation in a soil and climate of rare excellence. Cotton 
was the king of products ; it meant cash. Steamers that 
plied the beautiful rivers carried regularly to Mobile 
immense loads of cotton and other products of the fields, 
returning with sugar, coffee, clothing, and other necessaries 
and luxuries for farms. Other towns and cities might 
check temporarily the passage of products, but sooner or 
later Mobile received them or shared in their profits. 

Mobile was a brilliant social centre; beautiful old 
southern homes offered a southern welcome to visitors. 
The Christmas season was especially attractive ; planters 
would gather there at that time to make settlements and 
arrange for supplies for the ensuing year ; families from 
the country went there to enjoy the holiday festivities. 
The city's attractions brought to her bosom the beauty 
and chivalry, the virtue and intelligence of the land. 
A half century shed its glories on this happy state of 
things ; but they were destined to cease. 

The war between the States came; Mobile companies 
promptly left for the armies of Virginia and Tennessee. 
Mobile gave her Stewart, her Walker, her Woodruff, her 
Toulmin, her McRae, her Withers, her Maury, her 
McKinstry, her Deas, her Herndon, her Hagan, her 
Gracie, her all for the strife; her hospitals were all 
that skilled surgeons and loving women could make 
them ; her fortifications were among the last to admit 
the downfall of the Confederate States; her military 



MOBILE THE EMPORIUM OF ALABAMA. 23 

record on land and sea is bright with deeds of patri- 
otic wisdom and chivah'ous daring. 

Maffitt, in the Oreto (afterward the Florida), ran 
the gauntlet of Federal blockade into Mobile Bay, and 
when his sick men and battle-shelled vessel were ready 
for active service, he again passed the blockade lines and 
began his career of naval successes, cheered by the loyal 
support and inspiration of the citizens of Mobile. 

On August 5, 1864, Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, 
assisted by a powerful land battery, moved into Mobile 
Bay with four splendid ironclad monitors and fourteen 
steamers, carrying one hundred and ninety-nine guns 
and twenty-seven hundred men. To oppose him were 
the Confederate forts and torpedo Hnes, and Admiral 
Franklin Buchanan with the ironclad Tennessee and 
three wooden gunboats — the Morgan, Gaines, and Selma 
— carrying twenty-two guns and four hundred and 
seventy men. Admiral Farragut pronounced this " one 
of the fiercest naval combats on record." Farragut was 
victor. Fort Gaines fell on August 8th. Fort Morgan 
surrendered on the 23d. 

In March, 1865, General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby 
marched from Fort Morgan with thirty-two thousand 
Federal troops to invest Mobile. He was opposed by three 
Confederate brigades — Gibson's Louisianians, Ector's North 
Carolinians and Texans, and Thomas's Alabama Reserves, 
the latter were relieved April 1st by Holtzclaw's brigade 
from Blakeley — the whole force being less than four thou- 
sand men. The Confederates were behind strong fortifica- 
tions, and nature furnished mire and water to help check 
the Federal advance. 

The Federals approached nearer day by day to 
Spanish Fort and batteries Huger and Tracy, their iron- 



24 



SKETCHES OF ALABAJ^M HISTORY. 



clads bombarding from the bay as their infantry pressed 
on shore. The doomed Spanish Fort fell April 8th. 
Major-General F. Steele, with nearly fifteen thousand men, 
marched from Pensacola, destroyed railroads and burned 
all public property about Pollard, and stormed and carried 
Blakeley despite the gallant defense from its garrison 
of thirty-five hundred Confederates under Brigadier- 
General St. John R. Liddell. This was April 9th, the same 
day on which General Lee surrendered at Appomattox. 
Batteries Huger and Tracy fell two days later. 

General D. H. Maury was in command at Mobile; 
when he saw the forts of her defense fall he evacuated 
the city April 12th. The Federal general Gordon Gran- 
ger took immediate possession. 

The presence of the Federals was signalized by the 
holiday manners of the negroes, who, like children, put 
on all the gaudy attire they could find to celebrate the 
dawn of their freedom. 

Federal officers and soldiers found no social reception 
_ in Mobile ; the homes were in 

^,^(H||^k sorrowful quiet. The ladies 

i ""^""m and gentlemen kept them- 

HMf f^ W selves in seclusion, both be- 

cause of the natural sadness 
in their hearts for the down- 
fall of the Confederacy, and 
because of the promiscuous 
throngs of negroes and Fed- 
eral troops. 
^^jf Bishop R. H. Wilmer con- 

tinued the Episcopal service 
Bishop R. H. Wilmer. ^s prescribed by his church, 
praying for the President of the Confederate States, 




MOBILE THE EMPORIUM OF ALABAMA. 25 

General Thomas, the Federal commander, ordered him 
to refrain. The good bishop refused, and was impris- 
oned. His church was "closed, but he held his position, 
denying all authority to dictate his prayers for the 
United States Government, as he had no prayers for 
the power that had wantonly brought wreck and ruin 
on his people. He was finally released by order of Presi- 
dent Johnson. 

The carelessness of Federals or the accidental fall of a 
loaded shell produced the terrific magazine explosion of 
May 25, 1865. Thirty tons of gunpowder, with a large 
amount of assorted ammunition, were stored in the maga- 
zine. Early in the afternoon the whole city was jarred 
as if in the throes of an earthquake. Three hundred 
lives and nearly a million dollars' worth of property were 
destroyed. 

The return of peace threw into the city the congested 
cotton supplies of the tributary sections. The people at 
once betook themselves to business. Farmers and mer- 
chants began the resurrection of the prosperity that blessed 
the country before the war. Hundreds of thousands of bales 
of cotton poured into the warehouses, and agents from 
Liverpool and other manufacturing marts paid high prices 
for the kingly staple of the South. Schools and churches 
were reopened. 

Reconstruction wrought its foul blight upon her history. 
Political troubles pressed more heavily on Mobile than 
on other cities of the State, because having greater com- 
mercial interests and larger money transactions, the van- 
dals of politics found her a more fruitful mine of treasure. 
They perverted her institutions, but they could not check 
the growth of trade nor the high spirit of her citizens. 
The political battles raged fierce and long, but victory 



26 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

crowned the advocates of conservative government, and 
solid business methods restored confidence and invited 
capital. 

The city has many beautiful buildings, public and 
private, and is noted for men of distinguished profes- 
sional attainments and business success. She has fur- 
nished one judge of the Supreme Court of the United 
States — John A. Campbell; five judges for the Supreme 
Bench of Alabama — Abner S. Lipscomb, Henry Hitchcock, 
Arthur F. Hopkins, Henry Goldthwaite, and Edmund 
Spann Dargan. The bar is also honored by the names 
of Toulmin, Smith, Manning, Chandler, Semmes, Dunn, 
Anderson, Taylor, Clarke, and a host of other brilliant 
legal lights. Drs. Nott, Gilmore, Gaines, Ketchum, Mas- 
tin, Owen, and others dignify her history in the realm of 
surgery and medicine. Thaddeus Sanford, A. B. Meek, 
John Forsyth, Jones Mitchell Withers, C. C. Langdon, and 
Erwin Craighead have won high rank as editors. In 
literature many names suggest themselves, but the most 
prominent are Mrs. Chaudron, Mrs. Octavia Walton Le- 
Vert, Mrs. Elizabeth AV. Bellamy, Mrs. Augusta Evans 
Wilson, T. C. DeLeon, Peter Joseph Hamilton, Hannis 
Taylor, Father Abram J. Ryan, and A. B. Meek. 

As the only Gulf Port of the State, Mobile will not likely 
lose her importance. She has not grown in population or 
material enlargement as some of the cities of North Ala- 
bama, but her life is full of vigor and imbued with all the 
essentials of abiding prosperity. 



CHAPTER IV. 
ALEXANDER McGILLIVRAY. 

Lachlan McGillivray, a youth of sixteen summers, 
lured by reports of Indian adventures and wonderful 
scenery in the New World, ran away from his wealthy 
Scotch parents and came to America. He landed at 
Charleston with less than fifty cents in his pocket, but 
with buoyant spirits and a healthy body. Falling in 
with traders, he engaged as a driver of pack-horses, and 
went immediately into the heart of the Indian country. 
Given a knife, he exchanged it for a few skins, and thus 
laid the foundation of the immense fortune which he 
afterward accumulated. 

Captain Marchand, one of the French commandants 
at Fort Toulouse, married Sehoy, a Muscogee princess 
of the Tribe of the Wind ; their descendants became cele- 
brated in the history of the Southwest; their daughter, 
Sehoy, was first married to a Tookabatcha chief, and had 
a daughter named Sehoy. She afterward met and mar- 
ried Lachlan McGillivray : Sophia, Jeannet, and Alex- 
ander were the children of this marriage ; Sophia married 
Benjamin Durant, the noted athlete; Jeannet married 
LeClerc Milfort, who was the warrior bold to lead the 
Creeks in battle, and who, after the death of Jeannet, 
returned to France, wrote an interesting history of his 
sojourn among the Creeks, and became a distinguished 
general under Napoleon Bonaparte; Alexander became 

27 



28 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

the imperial chief of the Upper Creeks, and the shrewdest 
diplomat of his time. 

Lachlan McGillivray was an ardent royalist during the 
Revolutionary War, and when it closed he placed a vast 
amount of money and movable property on board a ves- 
sel and returned to Scotland, leaving his family to their 
fate in America. The Whigs confiscated his negroes and 
two valuable plantations which he had hoped his family 
would be permitted to hold. 

Alexander, the distinguished son, possessed rare natural 
abilities, and had taken a classical course in a school at 
Charleston. At thirty years of age he had impressed his 
influence and power upon the consideration of England, 
Spain, and the United States. Courted by these three 
nations, and trusted absolutely by his Creek subjects, he 
found congenial exercise for his diplomatic talents and 
his executive powers. His public acts began in 1776, at 
Coweta on the Chattahoochee, when he presided over the 
Grand Council of the Nations. Two years later the Brit- 
ish made him a colonel, and associated him with Colonel 
Tate at Fort Toulouse, hoping thereby to keep the Creeks 
hostile to the Americans. 

Conflicting territorial claims, growing out of the indef- 
inite treaties between England, France, Spain, and the 
United States, produced constant friction along the bor- 
ders. Georgia by royal grant claimed rights of territory 
from the Savannah River to the Mississippi ; in 1783, she 
procured from the Cherokees and Creeks a cession of 
lands among the head-waters of the Oconee River. A 
majority of the Creeks declared the cession unfairly pro- 
cured, and refused to sanction it ; in fact, the Upper Creeks 
opposed every measure endorsed by the Lower Creeks. 

McGillivray became a silent partner in the mercantile 



ALEXANDER McGILLIVRAY. 29 

schemes of William Panton, who opened stores at St. 
Augustine, St. Johns, St. Marks, Pensacola, Mobile, and 
Chickasaw Bluff. Under Panton's influence McGillivray, 
as emperor of the Creeks and Seminoles, signed a treaty 
with Spain, became a Spanish commissary, and engaged 
to keep open the breach between the Creeks and Geor- 
gians. He bafiled the United States commissioners at 
Galphinton, in 1785; at Cusseta, in 1787; and at Rock 
Landing, in 1789, advising the Indians against ratifica- 
tion of the unsavory treaty by which the Georgians 
claimed the Oconee lands. At the same time, to compel 
a larger annual stipend, he played upon the fears of 
Panton and the Spaniards by intimating a probable alli- 
ance with the United States in order to secure special 
commercial favors to his people, and also to recover his 
father's confiscated estate, which he valued at more than 
a hundred thousand dollars. 

Through Colonel Marinus Willett, a United States secret 
agent to the Creeks, McGillivray and thirty chiefs were 
induced to visit General Washington in Kew York City ; 
they w^ere cordially received along the route, and upon 
entering New York City they w^ere met by the Tammany 
Society in full Indian uniform; they w^ere escorted in 
splendor to the Federal Hall, where Congress was in ses- 
sion ; they were taken to visit the President, the Minister 
of War, and the Governor of the State ; an elegant enter- 
tainment given at the city tavern closed the day. 

The honors and the feasts were too sumptuous to be 
resisted. A treaty was concluded. The Oconee lands 
were surrendered. The Creek territory was to be free 
from encroachments, the Creeks and Seminoles were to 
accept the protection of the United States, and were not 
to treat wdth any State or the individuals of any State. 



30 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

The Creek Nation was to receive annually fifteen hundred 
dollars, and take possession of a consignment of goods 
then in warehouses in Augusta, Georgia. 

By a secret treaty with Washington, the Creek com- 
merce after two years was to flow through ports of the 
United States ; a hundred dollars and a handsome medal 
were to be given annually to each of the chiefs of the 
Ocfuskees, Cowetas, Cussetas, Tallassees, Tookabatchas, 
and the Seminoles. 

McGillivray was made agent of the United States, with 
the rank of Brigadier-General, on a salary of twelve hun- 
dred dollars per annum. Creek youths, not exceeding 
four at one time, were to be educated in tlie North at the 
expense of the United States. 

The Spaniards endeavored to counteract the influence 
of these generous considerations by creating McGillivray 
the Superintendent-General of the Creek Nation with a 
salary of thirty-five hundred dollars a year. 

William Augustus Bowles was a conspicuous rival of 
McGillivray. He wandered into the Creek country, 
learned the Creek language, married a chief's daughter, 
and acquired great influence. As the tool of Lord Dun- 
more, governor of the Bahamas, he tried to check the 
mercantile enterprises of Pan ton, Leslie and Company, 
and to balk the influence of McGillivray. He failed to 
hold his store upon the Chattahoochee, being forced to 
leave the country by order of Colonel Milfort, who threat- 
ened to cut off his ears if he were not gone in twenty-four 
hours after receiving the order. 

Bowles then engaged in piratical excursions against 
the vessels of Panton, and, capturing some of them laden 
with arms and general merchandise, ran them up into 
bayous, and spent a while in wildest debaucheries, dis- 



ALEXANDER McGILLIVRAY. 31 

tributing the prize-cargoes among his abandoned com- 
pany of whites and Creeks. Among the latter he was 
very popular. Aided by Willbanks and the half-breed 
Moses Price, he spread ill rumors of McGillivray, declar- 
ing that McGillivray had sold his people first to the Span- 
iards and then to the United States. 

The New York treaty was distasteful to the Indians, 
and many of them now distrusted McGillivray, but his 
intrigues could not be matched. He arranged for the 
arrest of Bowles and his transportation to Madrid. His 
consummate treachery evoked the consummate tact that 
preserved his tripartite relations with Panton, Spain, and 
the Federal Government. Professing faithfulness to the 
United States, he assisted Spanish agents in opposing 
American settlements and obstructing American engi- 
neers in establishing the Creek and Georgia boundary- 
line. His frequent visits to New Orleans threw him 
constantly with Governor Carondelet, whose orders to 
expel American inhabitants of the Creek country no 
doubt received the endorsement of the astute "Talley- 
rand," as Mr. Pickett calls McGillivray. 

The villanies of traders and agents often brought 
terror and bloodshed. Families and companies of traders 
and travellers were massacred.^ Sometimes by accident 
one or more members of the party attacked escaped. 
McGillivray was ever kind to the distressed, and his 



1 Colonel Pickett says that in 1788. Colonel Kirkland. of South Caro- 
lina, with his son, nephew, and several others, stopped at the home of 
McGillivray on their way to Pensacola ; that McGillivray sent a servant 
with them as they left his house that the Indians mio;ht know they were 
friends ; that a Hillahee Indian, a white man, and a necrro murdered 
them in camp at ni2:ht in what is now Conecuh County, on the bank of 
the stream which has ever since been called Murder Creek. 



32 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

sisters and servants figure in several thrilling rescues 
and in generous protection to unfortunates. 

McGillivray dispensed unbounded hospitality to friends 
and foes. Eminently selfish and unscrupulously ambi- 
tious, he used every means at command for his own 
aggrandizement. He was, in 1792, the agent and the 
Brigadier-General of the United States on a salary of 
twelve hundred dollars a year, the agent of Spain on an 




Murder Creek, Conecuh County. 

annual salary of thirty-five hundred dollars, the co-part- 
ner of Panton, and the Emperor of the Creek and Semi- 
nole Nations. 

The Federal Government never restored his estates, 
and his warped morality excused the duplicity which 
made the United States pay tribute as partial compen- 
sation for what he felt justly entitled to claim. 



ALEXANDER McGILLIVRAY. 33 

His affections were naturally with the British and 
Spanish, but his far-seeing statesmanship recognized the 
growth and future greatness of the United States, and 
bent his politic friendship to the power that was spread- 
ing its resistless authority over the Western Continent. 

He died in Pensacola February 17, 1793, and was in- 
terred with Masonic honors in the beautiful garden of 
William Panton in the city of Pensacola. His remains 
were subsequently removed to Aberdeen, Scotland. 

His Indian subjects were deeply saddened by his death, 
and grieved that so distinguished a chief should sleep his 
last sleep in the soil of the Seminoles. 



CHAPTER V. 
WILLIAM WEATHERFORD AND PUSHMATAHA. 

Sehoy, the daughter of Sehoy Marchand and the 
Tookabatcha chief, had some romantic experiences. She 
was a beautiful girl, and bore the beloved family name 
which for several generations was given from mother to 
daughter. She married early, as beautiful maidens 
usually do. In her time the English held Fort Tou- 
louse, and Colonel Tate, the British officer in command 
of the fort, married her. Colonel Tate after awhile became 
tired of her and deserted her, leaving her the mother of 
several children, but still young and beautiful. 

Charles Weatherford, a thrifty Scotch peddler, met, 
admired, and married this buxom grass widow. He 
made his home on the Alabama River, a little below the 
junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers. He pros- 
pered in store and farm ; bought negroes and fine horses ; 
constructed his far-famed race-track, upon which he 
trained his blooded steeds. His native tact, his marriage 
with Sehoy, the half-sister of McGillivray, his race-track, 
and his prosperity made him a popular man, and drew 
about him the powerful and martial spirits of the tribes. 

In his home of plenty was born and reared his distin- 
guished son William, who was called Lamochattee, the 
Red Eagle. 

Bold, gifted, and eloquent, William was a born leader 
of men. In the company of his uncles, Alexander Mc- 
Gillivray and LeClerc Milfort, he learned of the aggres- 

34 



WILLIAM WEATHERFOBD AND PUSHMATAHA. 35 

sions of the whites and the wrongs they had committed 
against his mother's people. Wars with the Choctaws 
and Chick asaws, and occasional attacks on the whites, 
'developed his military qualities and his matchless 
prowess. 

He heard Tecumseh at Tookabatcha, and counselled 
against his plans of war. When he discovered the irre- 
pressible spirit of war working its doom among the 
Creeks, he would have stayed the conflict. His brother 
John, his half-brother David Tate, and others of his blood 
were friendly to the whites. His property was endan- 
gered. No matter on which side he fought he was bound 
to suffer. The storm came on. He could not stand an 
idle watcher. He joined the Creeks. 

Fort Mims was situated in the Tensaw settlement, near 
the Alabama River ; Major Daniel Beasley, a brave but 
over-confident officer, was in command of it; there the 
excited people had gathered for protection. The defeat 
of the Americans at Burnt Corn had filled the country 
with alarm. In the fort were five hundred and fifty-three 
souls — old men, women and children, negroes, friendly 
Indians, and soldiers — against whom Hopiee Tusten- 
nuggee or Far-Off" Warrior, Peter McQueen, High-Head 
Jim, Josiah Francis or Hillis Hadjo, the prophet, Seek- 
aboo the Shawnee, and Weatherford led a thousand 
painted warriors. 

False rumors had so often alarmed, that when two 
negroes reported signs of Indians, one was whipped, and 
the other, tied to be whipped, witnessed in bonds the 
awful conflict, until he met death by the hands of the foe 
against whom he had vainly warned his master. 

On the morning of August 30, 1813, in Fort Mims, 
happy children were playing and young men and maid- 



36 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

ens were dancing and rollicking. General Tom S. 
Woodward says that Major Beasley was drunk, and when 
Jim Cornells reported the Indians to be near that Major 
Beasley called him a coward. 

At ten o'clock Major Beasley wrote General Claiborne 
of his ability to defend the fort against any force the 
Indians might bring against it. At twelve o'clock, when 
the drum beat for dinner, and the soldiers were off their 
guard, Weatherford and his warriors rushed upon the 
fort so unexpectedly as to gain the principal gateway 
before it could be closed. Fearful was the onslaught and 
desperately brave was the defence. 

For five dreadful hours the battle raged. The blood- 
thirsty savages, mad with slaughter, spared neither women 
nor children ; this promiscuous massacre of the helpless 
and innocent was contrary to the orders of Weatherford ; 
when he found he could not stay it, he rode away in 
sorrow ; it is said that he never recalled the scene without 
a shudder of horror. 

Only about forty of the inmates of the fort escaped 
death. The fires that glowed in the evening over the 
burning fort charred the scalped and mutilated remains 
of five hundred people, while more than a hundred bodies 
of dead Indians, around the stockade lines and in the 
woods, added to the ghastly tragedy of the day. 

Ten days afterward, Captain Kennedy with his com- 
pany arrived on the scene. Buzzards, dogs, and other 
animals were holding gluttonous carnival. Two long 
ditches were dug, and into them were placed the rem- 
nants of bones and flesh. The earth was thrown over 
these remnants, and the charity of burial was done. 
Weatherford reconnoitred Fort Madison a few nights 
afterward, and but for his report of its strength and 



WILLIAM WEATHERFORD AND PUSHMATAHA. 37 

readiness that fort would have felt the shock of an Indian 
attack. 

The country was aroused as never before nor since. 
Jackson soon swept from the north, Floyd from the east, 
Claiborne and Pushmataha from the south and west. 

At Econachaca, the Holy Ground, on the Alabama 
River, in the present county of Lowndes, were the homes 
of Weatherford and the prophets. There had been gath- 
ered the property and families of many Indians. It was 
supposed to be safe from attacks of the whites. It was 
strongly fortified, and the prophets had surrounded it 
with enchanted circles within which they declared no 
white man could pass and live. A bold garrison of 
native warriors, inspired by the genius and presence 
of Weatherford and by the fanatical speeches of the 
prophets, defied invasion. 

On December 23, 1813, General Claiborne attacked the 
town. The Indians saw their prophets killed and the 
white men crossing the enchanted lines ; they were panic- 
stricken, and began to flee. Weatherford could not rally 
them, and was himself compelled to flee; mounted on 
Arrow, his splendid charger, he galloped to the river's 
brink ; finding himself hotly pursued, he spurred his 
horse over a fifteen-foot precipice into the river; horse 
and rider sank out of sight, but quickly arose ; the horse 
swam across the river, bearing his master beyond the 
reach of pursuit. 

The town was burned. Its spoils were given to 
Pushmataha and his men, who had nobly aided in the 
attack. 

Rain and cold made severe suffering for the soldiers 
during the few days following, but the brave fellows were 
glad to have taught the Indians that the Holy Ground 



S8 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

was not, as the prophets said, " the grave of the white 
man." 

Jackson's battles followed in quick succession. Weath- 
erford saw the hopelessness of the Creek cause. Jackson 
demanded his surrender as a condition of peace. Weath- 
erford knew the deep-seated hatred toward him ; that he 
was called "the murderer of Fort Mims"; that death 
would likely befall him if he surrendered. He was a 
brave man, and wished to save the women and children 
from starving and his nation from extirpation. He rode 
to the tent of General Jackson and surrendered. He ex- 
pressed a willingness to die, but begged for soldiers to be 
sent into the woods for the starving women and children 
of the war-party. 

General Jackson admired his manly courage, and ap- 
preciated the motives that prompted his surrender, invited 
him to alight, and cheerfully discussed the matters at 
issue. 

Weatherford accepted the terms of surrender, and used 
his influence to effect the surrender of all the Creeks. 
Officers feared he would be killed by soldiers who had 
lost relatives and friends at Fort Mims. They guarded 
him carefully until he could be sent beyond the reach of 
immediate danger. 

After the war he lived quietly and honorably on his 
Little River farm in the lower part of Monroe County. 
His name, once a terror to the settlers, was an honor to 
the private life of the citizen. His bravery and integrity 
were both respected. He died in the spring season of 
1826. " Red Eagle," a beautiful poem of A. B. Meek, is 
woven from the life of William Weatherford. 

In contradistinction to Weatherford was the noted 
Choctaw Chief, Pushmataha, " a warrior of great distinc- 




WILLIAM WEATHERFORD AND PUSHMATAHA. 39 

tion, wise in council, eloquent in an extraordinary degree, 

and on all occasions and under all circumstances the 

white man's friend." His ancestry is unknown, but he 

was born somewhere in eastern Mississippi, probably in a 

cabin on the bank of Noxubee 

River, near Macon, in 1764. 

His natural genius and martial 

qualities, discovered in raids 

against the Osages beyond the 

Mississippi, promoted him to 

leadership. 

When Tecumseh visited the 
Choctaws in 1811, Pushmataha 
followed him from place to -^**.-. ^ ^ 

place, arguing eloquently Pushmataha, 

against Tecum seh's designs. 

His influence was so great that he restrained the Choc- 
taws who, as a nation, never in war shed the blood of a 
white man. The few individual Choctaws who joined the 
Creek war-party were executed, by order of Pushmataha. 

At the outbreak of the Creek War Pushmataha offered 
himself and his people as allies to the whites. The " Tom- 
bigbee Settlements " were environed by Indians, and com- 
pletely separated from friends in Georgia and Tennessee. 
The Creeks, with their tribal confederates, occupied from 
the Oconee to the Alabama; the Cherokees skirted the 
Tennessee ; the Chickasaws held northwest Alabama and 
northern Mississippi, and the Choctaws occupied central 
and southern Mississippi. The Choctaws and Creeks held 
continuous dispute over possession of the region between 
the Black Warrior and the Tombigbee Rivers. The 
whites were in extreme peril, and there was much appre- 
hension lest the Choctaws should forget their traditional 



40 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

friendship and unite with the Creeks. Had they done 
so, the Chickasaws and Cherokees would probably have 
joined the coalition, the whites would have been exter- 
minated, and the history of Alabama would have been 
entirely changed. 

Pushmataha led his warriors in the battle of the Holy 
Ground, and did other important service for the whites. 
He was a genuine patriot, ever on the alert for the good 
of his tribes, and for the preservation of the friendly rela- 
tions with the whites. He was much admired by the 
Americans. General Jackson is said to have pronounced 
him the bravest man he ever saw. 

Pushmataha lived at one time near Meridian, and 
afterward in Clarke County, Mississippi, near the head- 
waters of Buckatunna Creek. He was very vain. Enter- 
ing a company of whites, he would ask, " Do you know 
who I am ? I am General Pushmataha." This, however, 
did not detract from the strength of his character, nor 
from his popularity in his nation and the United States. 
His timely aid saved the whites from destruction, and 
their gratitude cherished and honored him in life and 
death. His great weakness was drunkenness. He prob- 
ably brought on his death by a protracted debauch, 
though quinsy is named as the disease which killed him. 
He died in Washington City, December 24, 1824, having 
gone tliere with a delegation of his people on business 
with the United States. General Jackson visited him on 
his death-bed, and heard his request, " When I am gone, 
let the big guns be fired over me." He was buried in the 
Congressional Cemetery, his body being attended to its 
last resting-place by the great men of the country, amid 
imposing military and civil ceremonies. The big guns 
were fired over him. 



WILLIAM WEATHERFORD AND PUSHMATABA. 41 

Six years afterward at the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit, 
September 27, 1830, the Choctaws were, with great dif- 
ficulty, induced to cede all their lands east of the Missis- 
sippi River, and to prepare for removal to hunting- 
grounds they might select in regions west of the Missis- 
sippi. In the great war of 1861 to 1865 they aided the 
South, thus proving their devotion to the friends of their 
fathers. 

Colonel John H. McKee, the United States agent to 
the Chickasaws, encouraged the friendly spirit of that 
powerful tribe, and kept them from joining the Creek 
Confederacy. 



CHAPTER VI. 
GENERAL SAMUEL DALE. 

Among the names that thrill lovers of daring deeds 
none of backwoodsmen has a purer or brighter lustre 
than that of Samuel Dale, the Daniel Boone of the South- 
west. Born in Virginia, and removed early to Georgia, 
he was inured to all the hardships and rich adventures 
of border life. His father and mother died before he was 
twenty years old, leaving him, heavily in debt, to assume 
the care and support of seven brothers and sisters. The 
Indians were constantly about him, killing his neighbors, 
burning homes, destroying crops and cattle, and threat- 
ening every interest dear to his heart. Provisions were 
scarce, but hope and self-reliance fortify the darkest hours 
of the frontiersman, and experience had taught Sam how 
to meet boldly and confidently every danger and priva- 
tion of life. 

He made good crops and paid his debts. In the winter 
of 1796, he became a wagoner in Savannah, Georgia, but 
returned to his farm in the spring, meeting success in all 
his business relations, and using his profits for investment 
in goods, which he exchanged among the Creeks for ponies 
and cattle, hides and tallow, to carry for sale among his 
American neighbors. 

He was very active from 1799 transporting families 
from Georgia to the Mississippi Territory. His caution 
and prowess fitted him to protect the lives and property 
of movers. He kept several wagons on the road, and 

42 



GENERAL SAMUEL DALE. 43 

established a trading-post, so as to have return loads of 
Indian products. He served as guide to the United States 
commissioners, Harris and Easley, in marking cut the 
highway through the Cherokee Nation. 

He could not keep out of the border wars. He acted 
as scout and aided his fellow Georgians in beating back 
the implacable Creeks, who were forever disputing, and 
with good reasons, the rights of the whites to advance into 
their territory and occupy their lands. 

In 1811, he was present at the annual Grand Council 
of the Creeks at Tookabatcha on the Tallapoosa River. 
Tecumseh, the celebrated chief of the Shawnees in the 
North, and his fanatical brother Francis were there. 
They wished to arouse the Creeks to war against the 
whites. Benjamin Hawkins, the United States agent, 
was present, but did not realize the temper of the Creeks 
toward the Americans. He supposed that civil war 
might arise among the different Indian factions, but he 
would not believe the Indians could be induced to take 
up arms against the whites. 

Tecumseh, with twenty-four warriors of his tribe, 
marched for several nights in perfect silence into the 
great square, took the pipe offered by the Great Warrior 
of the Creeks, passed it to his warriors, who passed it 
from one to the other until it w^ent to all ; and then in 
silence and single file they marched back to their ap- 
pointed cabin, around which they danced, without salut- 
ing any one, the dance of the northern tribes. This filled 
the Creeks and their Choctaw visitors with mysterious 
awe and wonder. 

Every morning Tecumseh would send word to the 
assembled Council that he would on that day make his 
" talk," and as the day advanced he would send another 



44 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

message that "the sun was too far advanced in the 
heavens, and he would wait until the next day for his 
' talk.' " Mr. Hawkins grew impatient and left, but Dale 
had a warm friend, Will Milfort, a half-breed, whom he 
had nursed through a spell of sickness, who promised to 
report when Tecumseh was ready to talk. Milfort kept 
his word, and Dale was present. 

The mysterious marching and scowling faces, turning 
to all points of the compass, circling round and round, 
burning tobacco and sumac, preceded their visit to the 
Council, where the Shawnee war-whoop was raised. 
Tecumseh spoke, slowly at first and deliberately, but soon 
his words poured, his bright eyes flashed, his frame shook, 
his face reflected the changing passions of his soul, and 
the tones of his voice, variant from wail of wrongs to 
thunderbolts of vengeance, fell with resistless eloquence 
into hearts of valorous mould. The listeners clutched 
their knives and waved their tomahawks in the air. 

The speech committed the Creeks to war — war so cruel 
to the whites and so fatal to the Creeks. 

Dale had settled in Clarke County, Alabama, in 1808. 
When the Creek War broke out he raised a company, 
and joined Colonel James Caller to intercept Peter 
McQueen and High-Head Jim returning from Pensa- 
cola with army supplies furnished by British agents 
and resident Spaniards. 

The forces met July 27, 1813, and fought the Battle 
of Burnt Corn, so called from the name of the creek on 
which it occurred. The battle opened with advantage 
to the Americans, but after the Indians had been driven 
from their camp the Americans began to gather the 
spoils, and to catch the Indian ponies. The Indians fired 
from covert upon the Americans in the open, charged 



GENERAL SAMUEL DALE. 



45 



with yells, threw the Americans into confusion and flight, 
which the brave deeds and daring efforts of the officers 
failed to check. With the loss of the battle went the 
greater loss of prestige to American valor and arms. It 
was afterward considered a disgrace to have been in the 
battle. 

Fort Madison, in Clarke County, was feared to be too 
weak for defense. General Claiborne gave to Colonel 
Joseph Carson, in command, the privilege of evacuating 
the fort and repairing to Fort Stephens. Colonel Carson 
thought his orders peremptory, and, as his bugle blew 
calling out the troops to evacuate. Captains Austill and 
Dale had another bugle sounded calling for volunteers 
to defend the fort with the women and children who 
could not leave. About eighty volunteers remained. 
Dale replied to the note of General Flournoy, advising 
abandonment of the fort and repairing to Mount Vernon, 
"There are many women and children here whom I have 
sworn to defend. I have a gal- 
lant set of fellows with me, and 
when you hear of the fall of 
Fort Madison you will find a 
pile of yellow hides here to tan 
if you can get your regulars to 
come and skin them." Colonel 
Carson soon returned. The fort 
was not attacked. 

Jeremiah Austill, James 
Smith, and Sam Dale were the 
heroes of the celebrated " Canoe 
Fight " which took place on the 

Alabama River above French's Landing. The Indians 
had been depredating in the vicinity of Fort Madison, 




Jeremiah Austill. 



46 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

and Dale obtained permission from Colonel Carson to 
drive them away. Taking with him seventy men, he 
began to scour the country for Indians. He had been 
separated from the larger body of his men, which had 
crossed the Alabama River, and had only eleven men 
with him on the eastern side. 

A random fire had taken place between his forces and 
Indians in the canes, and as Dale and his men looked 
from their perilous position upon the river they beheld 
floating down the current a large flat-bottomed canoe in 
which were a chief and ten painted warriors. The In- 
dians were about to land, but seeing the whites on the 
bank ready to intercept them, they backed out into the 
river. Two Indians slipped out of the canoe and swam 
to shore. James Smith killed one of them as he reached 
the bank. 

The Indians on land for some unaccountable reason 
retired. A negro, Caesar, had a small dugout in which 
he could carry three men. Dale stepped into it, and 
called for volunteers to attack the Indians in the large 
canoe. Jeremiah Austill and James Smith followed. 
All wanted to go, but the little canoe would hold no 
more. 

Whites and Indians knew that the combat would be a 
death-grapple. As the canoes neared each other the chief 
recognized Dale, and shouted, " Now for it, Sam Thlucco." 
Rifles, clubs, and oars were plied desperately. Austill 
was in the prow of the little canoe, and was knocked 
down by the chief in the first onset. A second time he 
was knocked down, to rise again for bloody execution 
on his enemies. Smith and Dale were dealing death 
with clubbed rifles. Nobody flinched. Every Indian 
was killed. One fell into the water during the fight. 



GENERAL SAMUEL DALE. 47 

When the onset closed eight dead bodies were Hfted from 
the Indian canoe and pitched into the river, while the 
Americans on shore shouted long and loud in honor of 
the victory. No other naval battle, ancient or modern, 
ever displayed more valor and daring. This is one of 
the most desperate engagements that ever tested individ- 
ual heroism and manly prowess. 

Captain Dale and his companions returned to their 
nine friends left on the eastern side, and carried them 
in the bloody canoes to the western bank. 

Dale became a farmer after the close of the Creek War. 
He furnished General Mcintosh a thousand bushels of 
corn for the starving forces of Major Woolfolk at Fort 
Jackson, for which he was never paid by the United 
States. 

Late in December, 1814, business carried Dale to Fort 
Hawkins, Georgia. Colonel Hawkins and General Mc- 
intosh induced him to carry an express from the Secre- 
tary of War to General Jackson at New Orleans. He 
bought Paddy, a compact pony, for the trip. In eight 
days he was in New Orleans. When he reached Jack- 
son's headquarters the battle of New Orleans had begun. 
For the first time in his life Dale beheld the sublime 
action of a regular, pitched battle between large numbers 
of civilized forces. He was spell-bound by the awful 
grandeur of the engagement. 

General Jackson was so astonished at Dale's speed 
in conveying the dispatches that he sent him back to 
Georgia with other dispatches. As Dale reached Fort De- 
catur on the Tallapoosa, wet and almost frozen. General 
Mcintosh helped him from Paddy, put his arms around 
him, carried him to the fire, gave him whiskey and hot 
coffee, and kept him quiet until he was rested and warm. 



48 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Dale then delivered the dispatches, and told of the glor- 
ious battle at New Orleans. The old general wept and 
shouted for joy. Officers and men came rushing to the 
door, and Dale had to tell the story over and over until 
daylight, while the wildest huzzas rolled from throats of 
delighted patriots. 

He went on to Milledgeville, delivered his dispatches, 
and then returned to Dale's Ferry on the Alabama River, 
where he resumed business. Governor Holmes loaded 
him with trusts, committing to him the appointment of 
justices, sheriffs, constables, and other civil officers, for- 
warding commissions in blank, and leaving the appoint- 
ments entirely to Dale. 

The destitute immigrants imposed upon him for sup- 
plies for which they never paid, and forced him to fail in 
business. His last years were full of activities and honors. 
He was a delegate to the convention that separated the 
states of Alabama and Mississippi. He served many years 
in the General Assembly of Alabama, beginning as a 
delegate to the first Assembly that met at St. Stephens. 
He was a member of the legislative committee that met 
LaFayette at the Chattahoochee, and escorted him to 
Montgomery. With George S. Gaines he helped to re- 
move the Choctaws to their new homes on the Arkansas 
and Red Rivers. 

He bought two sections of land from an Indian in 
Lauderdale County, Mississippi, and lived there during 
his last years. He visited Washington during Jackson's 
administration, and spent many pleasant hours alone with 
the President, talking over campaigns and other matters 
of interest in those wonderful years. 

Dale met most of the magnates of the times. Calhoun, 
Clay, Webster, Benton, William R. King, and others 



GENERAL SAMUEL DALE. 49 

showed him distinguished courtesies, and captured his 
honest heart. His manhood all admired, and his infor- 
mation, though set in rugged stones, gleamed a conspic- 
uous diamond in the world of gems. 

General Dale died on May 24, 1841, calm and self- 
possessed, and was buried near Daleville, Mississippi. 
Shortly after his burial it is said that a Choctaw chief, 
standing by his grave, said, " You sleep here. Big Sam, 
but your spirit is a chieftain and a brave in the hunting- 
ground of the sky." 

Dale County in Alabama commemorates his name. 

In peace the Creeks revered him. Weatherford ad- 
mired him, and had him as groomsman at his marriage ; 
the hungry Indians lived on his fields, " but in battle the 
name of Big Sam fell on the ear of the Seminole like that 
of Marius on the hordes of the Cimbri." 



CHAPTER VII. 
ANDREW JACKSON IN ALABAMA, 



When Mr. George S. Gaines reported the massacre of 
Fort Mims to Governor Blount of Tennessee, Andrew 
Jackson was suffering from an arm wounded in a dif- 
ficulty with the Bentons. He was so excited by the news 
that he arose from his bed, and took command of the 
troops marshalled for the Creek War in Alabama. 
General John Coffee, with five hundred cavalrymen 
and such other mounted troops 
as he might gather on the way, 
was sent ahead to Huntsville to 
quiet the people in that region, 
where much excitement prevailed 
over Indian butcheries and ru- 
mors of Indian attacks. 

When Jackson reached Fay- 

etteville, Tennessee, an express 

from General Coffee announced 

the Indians approaching. So 

anxious were Jackson's soldiers 

to meet the Indians that they 

marched on foot thirty-two miles 

in five hours that they might 

take part in the expected battle. Coffee was misinformed, 

but the speed and endurance of the western frontiersmen 

showed what might be depended on in emergencies. 

,50 




General John Coffee. 



ANDREW JACKSON IN ALABAMA. 51 

General Cocke, with General White, was to bring troops 
and supplies from East Tennessee, and form a junction 
with Jackson in North Alabama. The troops and pro- 
visions were collected, but the latter were to be shipped 
down the Tennessee River, which, unfortunately at this 
time, was too low for boating. The scanty supplies at 
Huntsville were soon exhausted, and what could be pro- 
cured from the surrounding country was not sufficient to 
sustain the troops. Jackson waited in vain at Camp 
Coffee for the promised supplies. Cutting through the 
mountains, he moved up to Thompson's Creek, and estab- 
lished Fort Deposit. He did not know the shallow state 
of the Upper Tennessee River, and he bitterly blamed 
General Cocke for his embarrassments. On October 25, 
1813, he moved from Fort Deposit toward the south. 

On November 3d, General Coffee, with a thousand 
mounted men and a body of friendly Creeks, struck 
Tallesahatche, an Indian town fifteen miles east of Jack- 
son's camp. In the hottest of the battle a frantic prophet 
leaped upon a house-top, and shouted, "The Great Spirit 
is on the side of the red men, and his spirits will catch 
the bullets of the Americans. Look at me, on the top of 
the house, in full view of the Americans, and I am still 
unharmed." The Americans soon discovered him, and a 
bullet snapped his life. 

Not one of the warriors survived the battle. One hun- 
dred and eighty, all they could muster, fell on the bloody 
field. Eighty-four women and children were captured. 
Five Americans were killed and eighteen were wounded. 
" We have retaliated for the destruction of Fort Mims," 
wrote Jackson to Governor Blount. 

After the battle a slain mother was found embracing 
her living child. None of the women prisoners could be 



62 ' SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

induced to take the child and rear it. " No," they said, 
" all his relations are dead ; kill him too." 

Jackson sent the boy to the Hermitage, and Mrs. Jack- 
son reared him. The boy was named Lincoyer. He was 
devoted to his foster-parents, but died of consumption in 
early manhood. 

The hostile Creeks completely invested Talladega, a 
town of friendly Creeks. They guarded it so thoroughly 
that no messenger could slip through to report to Jack- 
son. General Thomas S. Woodward denies the story of 
the friendly chief and the hog's skin. Some historians 
say that the chief put on a hog's skin, with head and feet 
attached, and stooping down, went along rooting and 
grunting until he passed the picket lines of the enemy, 
when, throwing off the skin, he fled to Jackson and re- 
ported. However this may be, Jackson rushed to the 
relief of his beleaguered friends. On November 9th, his 
troops charged at sunrise, and, when the shock of battle 
was over, Talladega was relieved. Nearly three hundred 
hostile Indians were killed, and doubtless many more 
died of wounds received. 

Jackson returned to Fort Strother, happy over victory 
and hopeful of supplies. No grain nor meat had been 
received. Jackson wrote letters to Governor Blount, to 
his friends, to everybody in any position to furnish sup- 
plies, for bread and meat for his army. The soldiers 
suffered terribly. 

The militia mutinied, but with the volunteers Jackson 
forced them to return to duty. The next day the volun- 
teers mutinied, but with the militia Jackson forced them 
back to duty. On another occasion Jackson ordered the 
artillery to oppose the mutineers. On still another, he 
rode to the front, and with his well arm he aimed a 



ANDREW JACKSON IN ALABAMA. 5;^ 

musket at the column of mutineers, and vowed to kill 
the first man that dared to move forward. He thus mas- 
tered outbreaks, but his short-term troops would not re- 
enlist, and his ranks were sorely depleted. At one time 
he had only about one hundred soldiers. 

Robert Graison, a Scotchman long resident among the 
Indians, bore offers of peace from the Hillabee Indians. 
Jackson accepted them. In the meantime General Cocke, 
ignorant of messages to Jackson, ordered General White 
to attack the Hillabees. General White made the attack, 
killing sixty of their warriors and capturing two hundred 
and fifty of their women and children. The Indians 
regarded this as treachery, and in future battles they 
refused to surrender, believing they would be killed no 
matter what promises of safety were made. 

General Floyd, with Georgia troops and a few hundred 
friendly Creeks, defeated the Red Sticks at Autosse, and 
captured and burned the town. He returned to Fort 
Mitchell. Two months later, at Calabee Creek, the sav- 
ages, hovering around his second advance into their 
country, attacked him with redoubled fury, only to be 
whipped again ; but victory to the Georgians was dearly 
bought, and they retreated to the Chattahoochee. These 
campaigns of General Floyd served to draw large bodies 
from the front of Jackson, and to prepare the way for the 
victories of that doughty chieftain. 

Jackson, re-enforced by fresh troops, moved vigorously 
into the country of the Creeks, defeated them at Emuck- 
fau and at Enitachopco, but the battle at Enitachopco 
was attended in the outset with such advantages to the 
Indians that Jackson did not want another bout with 
them at that time, and hurried on to Fort Strother. 
Several chiefs and warriors of the battle afterward re- 



54 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

ported that they " whipped Captain Jackson, and ran him 
to the Coosa." 

The larger bodies of Indians were fortifying Tohopeka 
on the Tallapoosa River. This is the celebrated Horse- 
shoe Bend, admirably located for defense, but fatal to 
security if not successfully guarded. About one hundred 
acres of land were included in the Bend. Across the 
neck the Indians built breastworks of logs. Here had 
gathered the warriors of many tribes ; here was to be 
fought the battle that virtually ended the Creek War. 

From Fort Strother Jackson marched against this 
stronghold. On the morning of March 27, 1814, he 
dispatched General Coffee, with a large body of cavalry 
and friendly Indians, to ford the river two miles below 
the breastworks and to encircle the Bend. He himself 
with his main army moved against the breastworks. At 
ten o'clock the attack began, at first with cannon and 
then with rifles and muskets. A brave detachment of 
Coffee's command under Colonel Morgan and Captain 
Russell secured canoes, and passed into the rear of the 
Bend. Flames within the town signalled to Jackson 
that the detachment was attacking in the rear. Jackson 
at once ordered the storming of the breastworks. These 
had been so constructed as to expose assailants to both a 
direct and a flanking fire. The Americans carried the 
works, but not until fearful slaughter had dyed the logs 
with the life-blood of assailed and assailants. 

The Red Sticks, though attacked in front and rear, 
scorned quarter. The torch was applied to their retreats, 
and as they fled they refused mercy. Though wounded 
and prostrate, they fought those who would have saved 
them. The Hillabee slaughter left no hope of life. With 
surrender they expected painful death. One young war- 



ANDREW JACKSON IN ALABAMA. 55 

rior, overpowered and captured, remarked to the surgeon 
dressing his wounds, " Cure him ; kill him again." 

Eight hundred Indians were killed. Among the Amer- 
ican dead was Major Lemuel Purnell Montgomery, after 
whom Montgomery County is named. Sam Houston, 
afterward the hero of Texas, was among the wounded. 

Jackson now built Fort Jackson on the site of Fort 
Toulouse. Here he received the surrender of Weather- 
ford and other chiefs, and here he signed the Treaty of 
Peace, August 9, 1814. By this treaty the Indians sepa- 
rated themselves entirely from Florida, and ceded lands 
that " opened up half the present area of the State to the 
whites." This cession was demanded as indemnity for 
the expenses and losses of the war. 

Some of the Indians refused to sign the treaty and 
fled to Florida. British and Spanish agents in Pensacola 
continued to tamper with them. Jackson captured Pen- 
sacola and forced the expulsion of the British agents. 
Border barbarities and depredations repeated themselves. 
Four years later, 1818, Jackson was ordered to Fort Scott 
on the Appalachicola River to " put an end to the Semi- 
nole War." He acted with accustomed promptitude and 
decision. He marched into Florida, then Spanish terri- 
tory, ignored the protests of the Spanish governor, garri- 
soned Spanish forts with American soldiers, and in true 
Jacksonian style ended the war. He scoured the country 
wherever the Seminoles were to be found, and gave them 
to understand that neither British nor Spaniards could 
shield them from his vengeance. He captured two 
Englishmen, Arbuthnot and Ambrister, charged with 
exciting the Indians to war against the United States. 
He had Arbuthnot hanged and Ambrister shot, and that, 
too, in a Spanish province. 



56 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Several hundred hostile Indians, harbored in Pensacola 
by the Spanish governor, marched out in open day and 
killed Mr. Stokes and family, who were American citi- 
zens. This caused Jackson's advance upon Pensacola 
and Fort Barancas. Both places yielded promptly, and 
in his report to his friend, George W. Campbell, Jackson 
regretted that he had not stormed the works and hung 
the governor for the murder of Stokes and his family. 

These arbitrary acts of Jackson gave embarrassment 
to the national government, but they created dread of 
' American arms, which Indians and others have ever since 
regarded. Jackson afterward became President of the 
United States. 

Jackson was a true patriot, but he brooked no opposi- 
tion in his military career. He did what he thought 
right and needful for the success of military enterprises, 
regardless of law and consequences. He did so many 
things contrary to law that one historian asks if he 
could have done more " if he had been Andrew I., by 
the grace of God Emperor of the United States?" 




George Strother Gaines. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
GEORGE STROTHER GAINES. 



Captain James Gaines, the father of George Strother 
Gaines, was a colonial officer in the Revolutionary War 
and a member of the North Carolina Convention that 
ratified the Constitution of the United States. His home 
rested on the dividing line between Virginia and North 
Carolina, and was said to be half in one State and half in 
the other. His large family of children were about equally 
divided between the two States, being Virginians or North 
Carolinians, as they were born in one side or the other 
of the house. George Strother was born in the North 
Carolina side in 1784. He bore eminent blood in his 

57 



58 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY, 

veins, being connected with the Prestons, Pendletons, 
and Strothers. His mother, Elizabeth Strother, was first 
cousin to Sarah Strother the wife of Richard Taylor and 
mother of President Zachary Taylor, whose two children, 
General Richard Taylor, of Confederate fame, and Sarah 
Knox, the first wife of President Jefferson Davis, make 
historic links of special interest. 

Captain James Gaines removed to Gallatin, Tennessee, 
in 1794, and there George Strother grew to manhood and 
entered into business as clerk in the store of John and 
Robert Allen. In 1804, he accepted an invitation from 
Joseph Chambers to take charge of the United States 
trading-house at Fort Stephens, on the Tombigbee River 
in Alabama. In his passage down the Cumberland, Ohio, 
and Mississippi Rivers he saw much of the country, and 
became acquainted with many influential men of the 
Mississippi Territory. 

At Natchez he met the learned and cultivated Silas 
Dinsmore, the United States agent to the Choctaws. Col- 
onel Dinsmore was preparing to meet the Indians at Fort 
Stephens for a treaty to eff'ect the purchase of the lands 
between the widely separated Tombigbee and Natchez 
settlements, and thereby to remove obstructions to the 
mutual protection and interests of the settlements. 

A protracted delay at New Orleans enabled Colonel 
Dinsmore to make numerous purchases necessary for suc- 
cessful business with the chiefs. 

St. Stephens was reached in March, 1805. The Indians 
were there, according to agreement, but did not feel author- 
ized to sell the lands desired by the United States. At 
Mount Dexter, near Macon, Mississippi, they met the next 
year and sold a narrow strip between the "settlements" 



GEORGE STROTHER GAINES. 59 

— a strip much narrower than was expected by the United 
States commissioners. 

At the St. Stephens treaty the big table in the house of 
the factor was weighted down with good things to eat and 
drink. Officers of the United States and the Indian chiefs, 
with their captains, sat around the table every day for 
dinner. This was one of the ways by which the com- 
missioners and factors cultivated the friendship of the 
Indians. All guests on those occasions did their best to 
create good will. There were present at the treaty three 
great chiefs — Mingo Homostubbee of the Northeastern 
Choctaws, Mingo Puckshennubbee of the Western, and 
Pushmataha of the Southeastern Choctaws. 

The Indians are a sober-looking people, but they love 
fun. The sparkle of wines, the cheer of feasts, and the 
wit and wisdom of boon spirits delighted them, and they 
contributed a large share to the intellectual jousts at the 
table. A young lieutenant of the United States army 
annoyed the old chief, Mingo Homostubbee, by numerous 
questions. His last question was : 

"Who is considered the greatest warrior among you?" 

According to Mr. George S. Gaines, who was present, the 
old chief answered : 

" I was considered the greatest warrior, but found it was 
not the case when returning from a visit we paid President 
Washington in Philadelphia ! " 

" How did you make the discovery ? " inquired the 
lieutenant. 

" The President sent us in a ship to New Orleans," said 
the chief, and when we were at sea, entirely out of sight 
of land, a storm came upon us. The waves were so high 
they seemed almost to kiss the clouds, and the ship rolled 
about among them until I thought that we would never 



60 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

again see the beautiful hills and valleys, forests and 
streams of our beloved country and our bones would 
lie scattered on the bottom of the strange waters instead 
of resting peacefully with our departed relations. All 
this alarmed me. I found that I had not the firmness in 
danger and the utter fearlessness of death of a great 
warrior, and concluded to go down into the cabin to see 
how my friend Puckshennubbee was affected by this (to 
our party) new and strange danger. And what do you 
think he was doing?" 

The description of the storm attracted the attention of 
every one at the table. The lieutenant eagerly asked, 

"What was he doing?" 

" Why," said the old chief, with a very grave face, but 
a humorous twinkle of the eyes, " Why, he was making 
love to an old squaw we took along to cook for us, and he 
seemed to be as unconcerned about the danger as if he 
were at home in his own cabin, sitting by the fire and 
listening to the songs of the wind among the trees." 

The roars of laughter that followed this denouement 
drowned Mingo Puckshennubbee's indignant denial of it. 
Mr. Gaines said that Mingo Puckshennubbee was as re- 
markable for his modesty and simplicity as Mingo Homo- 
stubbee was for his wit and jollity. 

When Colonel Dinsmore tried to run the northern 
boundary-line of the Mount Dexter cession, he was 
checked by the captain of the Tuskahoma Indian vil- 
lage, nor could he advance until Mr. Gaines and his 
brother. Captain Edmund Pendleton Gaines, visited and 
quieted the captain. 

The section developed so rapidly that enlarged interests 
required division of labors, and the duties of Mr. Chambers 
were apportioned to three men. Mr. Gaines succeeded to 



GEORGE STROTHER GAINES. 61 

the trading-house, with Thomas Malone as assistant, 
Thomas W. Maury, of Virginia, was appointed register 
of the land office, and Lemuel Henry was made receiver 
of public moneys. 

Mr. Gaines was proud of his position, and used every 
means to become helpful in the civilization of the Indians. 
He eschewed politics, not because he felt indifferent, but 
because he construed his mission as a business man to be 
paramount to other interests. 

Hunters poured into St. Stephens, and the business of 
the trading-house increased. The Creeks from the Black 
Warrior River and from beyond the Alabama River, the 
Choctaws, and even the Chickasaws came to trade. Mr. 
Gaines was careful to deal fairly with them all. If an 
article was damaged, he would point out the defect and 
reduce the price. The Indians respected him highly, 
trusted him fully, and learned from him lessons of busi- 
ness integrity. 

Major John Pitchlyn, when a boy, lost his English 
father in the Indian country. Reaching manhood, he 
married into an influential Indian family among the 
Choctaws of the northeastern district, and dwelt near the 
mouth of the Oktibbeha River. He was a man of in- 
telligence and firmness, and of a handsome face. Mr. 
Gaines met him, liked him, consulted him, and secured 
his co-operation in many ways. Pitchlyn was appointed 
United States interpreter, but his influence among the 
Indians was so strong and salutary that the United States 
never used his services except at treaties or at the pay- 
ment of annual dues. 

To avoid the high Spanish duties on goods the United 
States shipped merchandise by way of Pittsburg down 
the Ohio River and up the Tennessee to Colbert's Ferry. 



62 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY, 

Mr. Gaines contracted with the Chickasaws to protect and 
to carry the goods on pack-horses to Cotton Gin Port on 
the Tombigbee, where Major Pitchlyn shipped them on 
to St. Stephens. Everything arrived in due time, without 
the loss or damage of an article. This was attributed to 
the honor and good faith of the Choctaws and Chickasaws, 
through whose territories the goods had been carried. 
These tribes were milder and more civil than the Creeks, 
but none the less warlike when aroused to battle. 

About 1812, Mr. Gaines married Ann, the daughter of 
Young Gaines, of St. Stephens. His brother. General 
Edmund Pendleton Gaines, was thrice married : first to 
Frances, the daughter of Judge Harry Toulmin ; second 
to Barbara, the daughter of Governor William Blount, 
of Tennessee; and last to Mrs. Myra Clark Whitney, 
whose long lawsuits for property in New Orleans are so 
celebrated in history. 

British agents acquainted the Indians with the hostile 
attitude of England and the United States; that war 
would come, and the British would swoop down on the 
country and capture it. The Creeks sided with the 
English. A cunning chief, Oce-Oche-Motla, from the 
falls of the Black Warrior, had been credited annually 
by Mr. Gaines to the amount of a hundred dollars. He 
had heard the news of the English coming, and tried to 
get credit for a thousand dollars, believing that no one 
would be at the trading-house to receive payment when 
it fell due. He offered his staunch friend, Tandy Walker, 
as security. Mr. Gaines mentioned the troubles with the 
English, and refused the credit. The chief insisted. Mr. 
Gaines proposed to sleep over the matter, and let each 
tell his dream in the morning. Tandy Walker secretly 
engaged to meet Mr. Gaines at midnight at " the Rock," 



GEORGE STROTHER GAINES. 63 

overhanging the river's bluff. There he told the treach- 
ery of the chief and the preparations for the Creek War. 

The next morning Mr. Gaines told his dream to be that 
the United States and the English would fight, the 
English would be whipped, and the northern tribes 
siding with the English would suffer; and that he must 
not give the large credit. He gave the chief the accus- 
tomed hundred-dollar credit, and never afterward saw 
him again. 

Tandy Walker was a hero. Hearing that a white 
woman had been captured in Tennessee and taken to 
the Black Warrior village, he went on foot to visit his 
friend, Oce-Oche-Motla. He secretly obtained a canoe, 
slipped off with the woman at night, and carried her 
down to St. Stephens. She was Mrs. Crawley. She was 
sick, and crazed from suffering and anxiety. Mrs. Gaines 
nursed her back to health, and then Mr. Gaines, Colonel 
Haynes, and Thomas Malone bought a horse, bridle, and 
saddle, and sent her with a party of gentlemen back to 
her home at the mouth of the Tennessee. 

Burnt Corn, Fort Mims, and other places were carved 
into history. People left crops and stock to the chances 
of the hour, and poured into the forts. Mr. Gaines dis- 
patched Mr. Edmonson to bear the story of battles and 
massacres to Governor Blount and General Jackson in 
Nashville. The Creek War passed. General Jackson at 
Fort Claiborne ordered from Mr. Gaines blankets and 
clothing for his Indian warriors. Mr. Gaines complied, 
but requested a draft on -the War Department for settle- 
ment. Jackson felt annoyed, but gave the draft. Shortly 
afterward he wrote Mr. Gaines to learn the author of an 
enclosed anonymous letter, which charged Judge Harry 
Toulmin as being a spy and secret ally of the British. 



64 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Mr. Gaines went to Mobile to meet the General, and to 
explain the character of his friend. Jackson greeted him 
pleasantly, and assured him that no suspicion rested on 
his friend, closing with, " I only wanted to know the 
scoundrel that dared practice such an imposition on me." 

The factorage was removed to Gainesville, Sumter 
County. This town was named for Mr. Gaines. Here 
he remained three years. He then became a merchant 
in Demopolis, and, 1825 to 1827, served Marengo and 
Clarke Counties in the State Senate. 

By various treaties the Indians bound themselves to 
vacate the old hunting-grounds of their fathers, and to 
consent to go to the Indian territory set apart west of the 
Mississippi River. Mr. Gaines consented to help select 
the lands to which the Choctaws were to move. He also, 
as commissioner of the United States, accompanied the 
Choctaws in their removal, but was so mortified at the 
failure of the United States to carry out its contract to 
furnish wagons to convey the women and children and 
the infirm that he resigned his office. The Choctaws 
desired to make him their chief, but he declined. 

He lived many years in Mobile, always in active busi- 
ness, and for a while was president of the Mobile branch 
of the State bank. In 1856, he removed to State Line, 
Mississippi, where he died in January, 1873. 

He was one of the original movers to construct the 
Mobile and Ohio Railroad. For years he taught, wrote, 
urged, advocated, travelled, and worked to arouse interest 
in this road — this artery of commerce that gave to Mobile 
its first railroad facilities through a far-stretching region 
of varied products and multiplied interests. 

The Mobile Register of June 19, 1872, said of him, 
"George S. Gaines, the just, pure man, the friend and 



GEORGE STBOTHER GAINES. 65 

counsellor of the red man, the wise and faithful pioneer 
of civilization in the Mississippi Territory — the patriarch 
of two States. . . . His life has been one constant and un- 
broken series of kind deeds, wise counsels, and enlarged 
thought for the good of his people. With remarkable 
and admirable business qualifications, he brought to his 
intercourse w4th the haughty and suspicious savages a 
consideration for their rights, a deference for their habits 
and feeling, an unvarying politeness that won their entire 
confidence, their perfect trust, until his simple word be- 
came their law, and his sympathy and kindness their 
abiding reliance. The part Mr. Gaines acted in the early 
history of Mississippi Territory, and subsequently upon 
its division into the States of Alabama and Mississippi, 
was one of untiring interest and of great advantage to 
the young communities in which he was equally at home. 
His position as Indian agent had brought him in contact 
with the leading men of both States. His influence was 
either directly or indirectly felt in every measure of public 
importance for a long term of years." 

5 



CHAPTER IX. 
THE FRENCH COLONY IN MARENGO COUNTY. 

A YEAR after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo the 
United States Congress set aside, at two dollars per acre, 
payable in fourteen years, one hundred and fourty-four 
square miles of land in the Mississippi Territory for the 
French Vine and Olive Corapany. This company was 
composed of the families of French military officers and 
civilians "whose restless spirits had been formed and 
tutored to act a part in games which loosen thrones and 
crack the sinews of whole nations." The talent, the 
chivalry, the culture, the beauty and grace of these exiles 
from France and friends of Napoleon had added lustre to 
the proudest battlefields and the most splendid court 
of Europe, and their settlement within the wilds of our 
virgin forests surpassed in romantic interest all the 
chapters of former history. 

Agents of the company, led by Nicholas S. Parmentier, 
visited the regions along the Arkansas River, where they 
were joyously greeted by the Indians, who recalled the 
friendship of the olden time, styled the French their 
" Great Fathers," and declared them " as good as Indians." 

Nature was lavish of her bounties. The soil was un- 
surpassed in fertility, and produced varied and abundant 
crops. The native olive gave faith in the probable thrift 
of those to be imported from Europe. " The Arkansas 
River is as beautiful as the Seine, and only wants a 
Rouen or Paris in miniature," wrote one of the agents 



THE FRENCH COLONY IN MARENGO COUNTY. 67 

on his tour of inspection. This agent passed on to the 
Red River country and found it " the Nile of America," 
and " the vast and natural nursery of Bacchus." He was 
so charmed that he explained how flour, bacon, and whis- 
key, which he named as essentials, could be transported 
across the Raft, that wonderful natural barrier to the 
navigation of the Red River. 

The Mississippi and its branches ofiered navigable 
waters through fertile regions, but rumors condemned the 
climate. The colonists did not desire to settle where it 
was said the servant who called the doctor for his sick 
master would feel obliged at the same time to call for 
the priest and notary. 

The Tombigbee regions offered the three requisites for 
a settlement — a fertile soil, a salubrious climate, and a 
navigable water-way. 

In May, 1817, the schooner McDonough, bearing the dis- 
tinguished immigrants, heaved into sight of Mobile Bay. 
Gliding gently under a pleasant breeze it approached the 
land of promise, when a signal gun from Fort Bowyer gave 
warning of dangerous waters. As night came on the 
breeze stiffened to a gale and the vessel grounded. Its 
intrepid captain, John McLoud, experienced, collected, 
and active, quieted the passengers until Lieutenant Beall, 
the Commandant at the Fort, and Captain Bourke, of the 
United States Army, with four brave men of the garrison, 
put off with a life-boat into the stormy sea and rescued 
them. 

The entertainment accorded may be judged by the fol- 
lowing extract from a letter of one of the company : " Not 
content with rescuing us from the danger of wreck, they 
conducted us into the fort, and with an attention the most 
unaffected, taught us to forget the danger we had escaped, 



68 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

and to bless the circumstances which enabled us to enjoy 
their generosity and kindness." 

The schooner, lightened of its load, floated into deep 
water, and with company and cargo sailed up to the city 
of Mobile. There, also, the company received the most 
cordial welcome and kindly attentions. Mr. Gibson, Mr. 
John Toulmin, brother of Judge Harry Toulmin, and Mr. 
Addin Lewis, Collector of the Port, showed them special 
courtesies, introducing them to the first business houses 
of Mobile, and acquainting them with the conditions of 
the country. Mr. I^ewis kindly lent them the government 
revenue-cutter, in which they began, under the United 
States flag, the ascent of the Tombigbee. 

The immigrants made brief stops at the forts along the 
river, enjoying the hospitality and courtesies of Judge 
Harry Toulmin and his son-in-law General E. P. Gaines. 
Information gained from these gentlemen indicated the 
Tombigbee as preferable to the Alabama for their settle- 
ment, because the high banks and deeper channel of the 
former assured greater conveniences. 

A princely favor we must here relate. Mr. Young 
Gaines, the father-in-law of Mr. George S. Gaines, tendered 
to the colonists the use of his plantation free of rent while 
the commissioners were exploring the country to deter- 
mine a place of settlement. Colonels Dale, Fisher, Dins- 
more, and Wharton, and Mr. Malone gave full description 
of the topography of the country. They made the un- 
pleasant disclosure that a squatter agent was about to 
arrange for the establishment of a company on the line 
of lands chosen by the French commissioners. 

Mr. George S. Gaines, United States Indian factor, then 
living at Gainesville, advised the French to locate at 
White Bluff", now Demopolis. The landing there of the 



THE FRENCH COLONY IN MARENGO COUNTY. 69 

company was an occasion of much joy. The prospect 
pleased, though the uncleared wilderness would require 
years of axe, spade, and plow, of saw, chisel, and hammer 
before the settlement would be a habitation fit for the 
French. 

A letter-writer to friends in Philadelphia said at that 
time, " White Bluff is one of the finest situations I ever 
saw in my life, and lands lying around it are of the very 
first quality. Nature here offers us everything. If we 
profit by these advantages, we must be happy." 

The colonists were, in a measure, happy, but they did 
not prosper. Their friends continued to arrive from 
Mobile, and cabins were built for homes. Reared and 
nurtured in the luxuries of France, the immigrants were 
unsuited for the exactions of pioneer life. The mistakes 
and delays of the United States Government and of their 
own commissioners put unnecessary privations upon them. 
They knew not what lands would be allotted to them, 
and yet they bravely cleared patches, planted, and en- 
deavored to provide food crops for the ensuing winter. 

The meridian line was run, and the town at White 
Bluff was founded. Count Real, of Philadelphia, named 
it Demopolis. By a succession of fatal errors it was after- 
ward discovered that the townships granted to the French 
were outside of Demopolis ; that the French Association 
at Philadelphia, dealing directly with Mr. Crawford, the 
Secretary of the Treasury, was arbitrarily disposing of 
the lands by assignments which forced many to lose their 
improvements and begin new ones deeper in the forest. 
Count Desnouettes went to Philadelphia to adjust these 
troubles, but only succeeded in securing his own improve- 
ments. The rest were left to their fate, but they cheerfully 
attempted to rebuild and to prosper. The surroundings 



70 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

were uncomfortable and full of hardships, but the French 
have naturally happy dispositions. They breasted trials, 
and at evening time danced and chatted under the sweet 
spell of music. 

It is a touching history, that for adherence to Napoleon 
these people were banished from France, torn from all the 
pleasures of society, and exposed to the rough forest life 
of American pioneers. Nature promised them the reward 
of future comforts, but life presented many changes. 
Ladies who had moved in the resplendent circles of 
St. Cloud, attended to the menial services of the home, 
and yet retained all the sweet graces that surround the 
characters of the refined. Gentlemen who had fought 
by the side of Napoleon, were compelled to do the ordi- 
nary work of common laborers in order to eke out a living 
for their families in this New World. 

The cold ol winter killed the young grape-vines and 
olive-plants. Often the shipments from France were de- 
layed in passage, until the plants withered beyond restora- 
tion upon reaching the colony. Failure attended the 
efforts to cultivate the vine and olive. Land thieves 
and squatters harassed continuously. Newspapers soon 
bore advertisements of forced sales, and the disheartened 
colonists made the best bargains they could in the pres- 
ence of so many mistakes and so many land-swindlers. 
Marengo, Areola, and Linden will ever preserve the 
memory of this most worthy and distinguished, but most 
unfortunate colony. 

Among the distinguished names of these French im- 
migrants are the son of Marshall Grouchy, Count Lefebvre 
Desnouettes, Colonel Nicholas Raoul, J. J. Cluis, Henry 
L'Allemand, and Count Bertrand Clausel. 

The Bourbon dynasty, awakened from its madness. 



THE FRENCH COLONY IN MARENGO COUNTY. 71 

invited the leaders back to France. Many returned to 
their native land and held high office. Others secured 
employment here and died in Alabama. A few remained 
about Demopolis, but most of them sold their lands and 
returned to France or scattered in the cities and sections 
of the great Southwest. 




William Rufus King. 



CHAPTER X. 



WILLIAM RUFUS KING. 

The Atlantic States have contributed to Alabama some 
of her noblest citizens, but William R. King, the gift of 
North Carolina, attained higher position of honor than any 
other. His native State elected him to her Legislature 
when he was but twenty years of age, and gave him three 
successive terms. He was born ten years after the Decla- 
ration of Independence, was graduated at eighteen years 
of age from the University of North Carolina, studied 
law under William Duffy, Esq., was admitted to the bar, 
and immediately took prominence in affairs of State. 

In 1810, he was elected to the Congress of the United 
States, where he supported strongly tho war measures of 

72 



WILLIAM RUFVS KING, 73 

President Madison. His indignation at the outrages our 
country had suffered at the hands of France and England 
roused his nature to give voice and vote for redress. 

Napoleon revoked the odious decrees which, with Eng- 
land's "Orders in Council," had cut up our commerce 
" hook and line, bob, and sinker," but George III. of 
England, the crazy king, insisted upon ruthless disregard 
of the commercial and civil rights of our infant republic. 

The War of 1812 followed as a consequence, and 
established American rights. During this war the city 
of Washington, our National Capital, was entered by the 
British, and its public buildings, except the Patent Office, 
were burned. 

The battle of New Orleans brought us peace, assured 
our mastery of the western continent, and established us 
in the respect of nations. 

Upon the return of peace, Mr. King resigned his place 
in the House of Representatives and became Secretary of 
Legation to the Honorable William Pinckney, first at 
Naples and afterward at St. Petersburg. This office gave 
him two years of residence in Europe, where he acquired 
valuable information of the governments and people of 
that continent. 

He returned to America in 1818, and made his home 
near Cahawba on the Alabama River. The next year he 
was a prominent delegate to the Convention, which met 
in Huntsville, to prepare the Constitution for the admis- 
sion of Alabama into the Union. 

Mr. King, Judge Henry Hitchcock, and Judge John 
M. Taylor, drafted the original Constitution of Alabama. 

While on a visit to North Carolina, the news reached 
him that he had been chosen to represent Alabama in the 
Senate of the United States. He went immediately to 



74 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Washington, where his distinguished services won the 
friendship and respect of Calhoun, Clay, Webster, and 
other great political chieftains of that period. For thirty- 
two years he held his seat in the Senate, and " without 
ostentation, originated and perfected more useful measures 
than many who filled the public eye by greater display 
and daily commanded the applause of a listening Senate." 

Mr. King was not an orator ; he was a business member 
of that distinguished body of law-makers whose names 
rank among those of the greatest statesmen of the world. 
There can be adduced no higher evidence of his worth and 
wisdom than that he " attained greatness in the midst of 
greatness," and on all occasions when his country needed 
the counsels of great statesmanship, he ranked the peer of 
the most masterful of his compatriots. 

He was President of the Senate longer than any other 
man, being often in the chair during the greater part of 
the terms of five vice-presidents. None but a man of 
great powers could have swayed the Senate in those 
tumultuous times. 

It is said that he " possessed the rare and the highly 
important talent of controlling, with impartiality, the 
storm of debate, and moderating between mighty spirits 
whose ardent conflict at times seemed to threaten the 
stability of the government." 

Honors came naturally to him, and he bore them with 
becoming grace. Mr. Douglass said, " He held numerous 
official stations, in each of which he maintained and 
enhanced his previous reputation." 

Mr. King was a personal friend of Mr. Calhoun and 
shared his political opinions. An ardent party man, 
he was free from the narrow policies of the bigot, and 



WILLIAM BUFUS KING. 75 

was not only trusted by his friends, but was respected by 
his political opponents. 

His long years of public service were full of sharp 
political issues, and he sustained the purest integritj^ of 
character and loftiest dignity of conduct in the midst of 
all excitements and temptations. 

The influx of population to the territory of Alabama 
had been such as to produce a " boom " in lands. Immi- 
grants had purchased land from the United States under 
the credit system. Prices ran up as high as seventy dol- 
lars an acre. The debt for these lands amounted to nearly 
twelve millions of dollars. To pay this enormous sum 
would have been impossible, and financial ruin stared 
in the faces of farmers. Mr. King and his colleague, Mr. 
Walker, secured national legislation for relief of the pur- 
chasers, and thus early ingratiated themselves with the 
people. 

In 1828, Mr. King again showed his firmness of purpose 
and his vigorous but cautious adoption of principles. The 
tariff debates were hot and sectional. Mr. King was a 
" States Rights " man, and yet he was proud of the Union 
and sincerely wished its perpetuation. He was active in 
campaigns and always supported the Democratic candi- 
dates. His resignation from the Senate in 1844 to accept 
the office of Minister to France was prompted by motives 
of truest patriotism. Mr. Tyler belonged to the party of 
his political opponents, but solicited the services of Mr. 
King, whose judgment, discretion, honor, and information 
fitted him for the delicate agency that was to keep France 
from joining England in protest against the annexation 
of Texas. Mr. King secured a speedy meeting with King 
Louis Philippe, and, disdaining the roundabout diplomacy 
of Europe, entered directly into the argument, showing 



76 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

France's advantages in neutrality, and the consequences 
of war that was sure to follow, regardless of European 
interference. He plainly asked King Louis what he 
intended to do should Texas be annexed. King Louis 
replied that " he would do nothing hostile to the United 
States, or which could give to her just cause of offence." 

Mr. King was a strong advocate of the annexation of 
Texas, and we may understand with how much joy he 
communicated to Mr. Calhoun, the Secretary of State, the 
assurances of the king. 

He returned home in 1846. Hon. Dixon H. Lewis had 
succeeded to his seat in the Senate and defeated him for 
re-election. Mr. King afterward received appointment to 
the Senate by Governor Chapman to fill the unexpired 
term of Mr. Bagby, whom President Polk had named as 
Minister to Russia. He was re-elected in 1849 to the full 
term succeeding. 

Mr. King opposed the Secession spirit of 1850, and 
believed cooler counsels would devise means to rectify 
differences and preserve the Union. He was President 
of the Senate during Fillmore's administration, and before 
its close was nominated and elected Vice-President of the 
United States under Mr. Pierce. 

His health failing, he went to Cuba in a special vessel 
furnished by the United States Government. In Cuba he 
took the oath of office as Vice-President of the United 
States, our government honoring him by special commis- 
sion to the consul to administer the oath. 

Finding his health giving away, he returned to his 
Dallas County home to die. He was granted his wish to 
look upon the beloved scenes of home before death came, 
but he died April 18, 1883, on the evening of his arrival. 
His were the Christian's life and the Christian's spirit. 



WILLIAM BUFUS KING. 77 

Mr. King was a strict construction Democrat of the 
Jefferson school. He was six feet tall, erect in carriage, 
brave and chivalrous in conduct. He was unassuming 
in manner, and his character was superior to his office. 

It is a proud legacy to our country when a statesman's 
good name and purity of motives cannot be questioned. 
Mr. Hunter of Virginia, on the floor of the Senate, said 
of him, " Few public men have made more friends and 
none ever left fewer enemies. He possessed a sound judg- 
ment, a resolute purpose to pursue the right, and a capacity 
to gather wisdom from experience. His whole soul would 
have sickened under a sense of personal dishonor. His 
view grew with his horizon and he was equal to the 
occasion." Mr. Cass said of him, " He elucidated every 
subject he investigated. Firm but cautious, frank and 
fearless, of high honor and irreproachable morals, he 
brought a vigorous intellect and varied and intensive 
information to the public councils." The eulogies pro- 
nounced on his character by the President, by Congress, 
and by the Supreme Court attest the nation's respect 
and esteem. 

Mr. King never married. His nephew and namesake, 
Captain William R. King, whom he had made his heir, 
was killed in the battle of Sharpsburg. 




Alexander Beaufort Meek. 

CHAPTER XL 
ALEXANDER BEAUFORT MEEK. 

Judge A. B. Meek, the poet, orator, jurist, and states- 
man, is enshrined lovingly in the hearts of Alabamians. 
His lofty ideals and his intellectual grasp of history have 
contributed so much to the literary life of the State, that 
scarcely anything worthy has entered into the published 
history of the Southwest that has not borrowed from his 
store of facts. 

He was born in Columbia, South Carolina, July 17, 
1814, and died suddenly in Columbus, Mississippi, No- 
vember 1, 1865. In his early youth his parents moved 
into Alabama, and settled in Tuscaloosa. Here he grew 
to manhood in the midst of a vigorous people in the first 

78 



ALEXANDER BEAUFORT MEEK, 79 

flush of expanding statehood, and was lured to high in- 
tellectual pursuits and social sentiments by native genius 
and by the company of spirits wooed by kindred impulses. 

His father, Dr. Samuel M. Meek, took great pains in 
the education of his children, and was especially proud 
of them. Three sons have attained eminent distinction 
in letters and public life. One, Colonel Samuel M. Meek, 
has for many years resided in Columbus, Mississippi, and 
stands among the first lawyers of that State. 

Professor Benjamin F. Meek, another son, won high 
collegiate degrees, and for thirty years occupied the chair 
of English Literature in the University of Alabama. His 
pure, classic English has been the delight of every student 
whose good fortune carried him through the master's 
courses in the University. He was a scholar of vast in- 
formation, and his command of authors and their works 
made him one of the most accurate critics of the lan- 
guage, while his versatile and gifted powers of mind im- 
parted interest and enthusiasm to his classes. 

Judge Alexander B. Meek is the most distinguished of 
the three brothers. As a boy he was lovable and bril- 
liant, manifesting such devotion to literature as to snatch 
every opportunity for study and reading. 

When the University of Alabama was first opened for 
students in 1831, Judge Meek was matriculated. In 1833, 
he was graduated in the class with Marion Banks, Francis 
C. D. Bouchelle, John G. Davenport, AVilliam Woolsey 
King, Rev. Robert B. McMullen, and George D. Short- 
ridge. Two years later he was admitted to the bar. 

Honors fell thick upon him. In 1836, he was associate- 
editor of the Flag of the Union, and three years after edited 
The Southron, a monthly magazine of high merit. He 
spent several months as a volunteer officer against the 



80 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY, 

Florida Indians, and upon returning home was appointed 
Attorney-General of the State by Governor C. C. Clay. 
He was then about twenty-two years old. Six years later 
he was appointed probate judge of Tuskaloosa County. 

In 1844, he bore to Washington the electoral vote of 
Alabama for Polk and Dallas. In 1845, he was appointed 
Assistant Secretary of the treasury of the United States, 
and subsequently the federal attorney for the southern 
portion of Alabama. Henceforth his Alabama residence 
was in Mobile. His public service, his orations upon 
history and literature before colleges and historical socie- 
ties, and before intelligent countrymen in national cele- 
brations, and his contributions to current literature, had 
already marked him as a man of mighty intellectual 
powers. 

As a jurist he gave eminent satisfaction, and his ample 
income indulged his love of social and literary life. 
Through the Mobile Register, of which he was editor, he 
gave to the country the fruits of his ripe scholarship and 
sympathy with the institutions and great destinies of this 
favored land. Elected to the Legislature, he introduced 
the bill which established public schools in Alabama, and 
thus became the father of the educational system of public 
schools in the State. Possibly no other bill has ever been 
introduced into the Legislature that has been so far-reach- 
ing and so beneficial in results to the common people. 
The report upon the introduction of the bill is a masterful 
array of facts and deductions regarding the educational 
needs and conditions of an intelligent, progressive com- 
monwealth. 

In 1855, he began the publication of his writings in 
book form. Bed Eagle, a Poem of the South, attracted the 
immediate attention of the literary public. Then ap- 



ALEXANDER BEAUFORT MEEK. 81 

peared his Orations, Romantic Passages in Southwestern 
History, and Songs and Poems of the South. In 1859, he 
was again in the Legislature and was elected Speaker of 
the House. He was twice married, first to Mrs. Slatter 
of Mobile, and afterward to Mrs. Cannon of Columbus, 
Mississippi. 

Such is the brief outline of the life of Judge Meek. To 
know him well one must read his writings and the me- 
morials from his personal friends. In Reminiscences, His- 
torical, Political, Personal, and Literary, Judge Wm. R. 
Smith has a most interesting and valuable article on 
Judge Meek, treating of him as a man and a poet. He 
pays the highest tribute to his genial nature, his jolly 
boyhood, his popular qualities of heart and habits, and 
notes the remarkable fact that young Meek, when a 
Sunday-school pupil, repeated from memory the whole of 
the English Bible. He describes him as a man of fine 
personal appearance, dignified and imposing, inclined to 
be dictatorial among men, but full of gentleness and grace 
among women. He was agreeable to all. An exceed- 
ingly interesting entertainer, he captivated everybody by 
the exquisite charm of his conversational powers. Al- 
though he had his own ideal world, he was entirely at 
home with his friends and acquaintances. "In the parlor 
he was superb ; on the streets he was genial, social, and 
cheerful ; as a friend he was warm and candid ; as an 
acquaintance he was cordial; as a politician he was an 
unchangeable Jackson Democrat; as an editor his articles 
were crispy, clear, and cogent ; at the bar he was consid- 
ered an eloquent advocate ; and on the bench, a profound 
judge." 

Judge Meek began early the rhythmic art. His was a 
tender heart, attuned to love and beauty; full of noble 



82 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

pride for the glorious Union and breathing the fragrance 
of sweetest passion for the South. His " Day of Freedom," 
an oration in blank-verse, delivered July 4, 1838, at Tus- 
kaloosa, expresses sentiments of lofty patriotism. His 
" Land of the South" is beautifully woven into the " Day 
of Freedom." 

"Balaklava" is probably the most popular of Judge 
Meek's poems. Its martial spirit, its rhythmic and re- 
current measures, make it a gem of rarest qualities, and 
render it a fit companion-piece with Tennyson's '' Light 
Brigade." 

Judge Meek's numerous prose writings mark the orator 
and the historian. They unfold a wealth of intellectual 
resources and a moral sublimity that lift mankind to 
the starry heights of human attainments. They map 
a nation's path to glory, and make that path the path of 
virtue, of intelligence, of social purity, of religious vener- 
ation, of Christian charity, of brotherly love, of patriotic 
impulses, of generous pride, of industry and consequent 
plenty, out of which comes the development of govern- 
ment that strengthens as the years go by. 

His love of letters was a passion, strong as religion and 
binding as the laws of force. Through literature he 
expected the redemption of the world, the sovereignty 
of religion, the quickening and organizing of all the 
godlike powers of heart and mind for God and country 
— the millennium. 

From his speeches we cull : " Not only do we invoke a 
moral dynasty, but also an intellectual one. The two 
must go together. God is all intellect as well as all 
love. Literature, in its purity, no less than religion, is 
a scion of his beneficence and one of his provisions for 
the regeneration of man." 



ALEXANDER BE A V FORT MEEK. 83 

"Literature in its essence is a spiritual immortality." 

" Politics itself can never be a science, never more than 
a barbarian scramble for office, unless it is purified and 
rounded into form by the spirit of literature." 

No sentences are more inspiring than his appeals for 
culture, his comparison of lettered genius with unlettered 
mediocrity, his investment of our country with a vigorous 
youth, inviting the untrammelled exercise of brains and 
pens as well as of brawn and muscle. 

Great as are the contributions of his pen, the sug- 
gestions of his master mind are even greater. When shall 
we look upon his like again? 



CHAPTER XII. 
THE STATE BANK. 

The rapid influx of population into the new State 
of Alabama increased the demand for articles manu- 
factured at a distance, and intensified the commercial 
inconveniences of isolated settlements. Wealth consisted 
largely in slaves and lands, and the need of a convenient 
medium of exchange was sorely felt. 

To remedy the inconveniences of exchange and to 
supply a circulating medium adequate to the growing 
prosperity, the General Assembly of Alabama established 
the State Bank December 20, 1823. The parent bank 
was located in Cahawba, but followed the seat of govern- 
ment to Tuskaloosa in 1824. There were ultimately 
branch-banks in Montgomery, Mobile, Decatur, and 
Huntsville. 

In 1823, large quantities of the University lands were 
sold, some of the most fertile tracts bringing as high as 
sixty dollars an acre. The legislative act which provided 
for the establishment of the State Bank^ provided also that 
"the moneys arising from the sale or rent of the lands 
given to this State by the Congress of the United States 
for the support of a seminary of learning, shall form a 
part of the capital of said bank." From the losses of 
this forced loan the University of Alabama has never 
recovered. 

There was good faith in the original purpose of the leg- 

84 



THE STATE BANK. 85 

islators. They considered the act " twice blest," inasmuch 
as it would supply the bank and people, while the Uni- 
versity would have the State as debtor and guarantee of 
accruing interest. The rapid growth of communities, the 
increase of crops, the importation of slaves, the rise of 
towns, and the improvements of homes and farms, in- 
spired confidence and invited speculation. 




Old Cahawba. 



The bank directors were elected annually by joint vote 
of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The 
rivalry of applicants for positions on the directing board 
of the banks was very sharp. It is said that hotel-keepers 
once held the money-keys of the State. In Tuskaloosa, 
Major Charles Lewin, a typical hotel -keeper, secured early 
election on the board of bank directors. He was jolly, 
genial, and clever, and could readily have notes dis- 



86 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

counted at bank for his customers, who divided with him 
the cash obtained. His popularity and success aroused 
the ambition of the other hotel-keepers in Tuskaloosa, 
who exerted themselves until they all became directors 
of the bank, and shared the power and popularit}^ which 
always follow in the wake of money favors. 

The -banks were creations of the Legislature, and it was 
but natural that they should be more or less the tools of 
influential politicians. In some respects they ushered the 
halcyon days of Alabama. They paid the entire taxes of 
the State from 1836 to 1841, but the virtuous spirit of the 
times condemned the financial policies that corrupted the 
powers which created them, and diverted to private ends 
funds which should have been guarded for the general 
public. The banks took in a great deal of non-negotiable 
paper, and became heavily involved. They became cor- 
rupt and reckless, granting loans on unsafe security, and 
advancing wildly on cotton in the fields, in bales, and 
ware-houses. A politician denied a loan at one bank, 
went to another, and, by berating the disposition to 
withhold money when it was most needed, would suc- 
ceed in getting a loan of thousands of dollars for his 
personal use. 

Prominent whigs and democrats owed the banks im- 
mense sums, both on their individual notes and on en- 
dorsements for others, and thus the State Bank was 
upheld by the dominant sentiment of both political 
parties. The banks every year went from bad to worse. 
The country suffered the disturbances of unsafe financial 
methods. Prices fluctuated so rapidly as to interrupt 
every transaction of business. The banks became the 
incubus of legislation. Their indebtedness reached nearly 
nine and a quarter millions of dollars. Conservative men 



THE STATE BANK. 87 

dreaded the collapse that would inevitably follow their 
close, and yet desired either their reform or their anni- 
hilation. 

" Reform" became the cry of those who desired to avert 
bankruptcy and repudiation. Resolutions were intro- 
duced in the Legislature of 1840 and 1841, charging im- 
proper relations between the Legislature and the banks. 
Governor Fitzpatrick appointed a committee of three to 
examine and report upon the condition of the Mont- 
gomery branch of the State Bank. The fraud and irreg- 
ularities that were exposed brought forth fierce newspaper 
criticism. Mass meetings of citizens inaugurated investi- 
gations which implicated law-makers in crooked dealings 
with the people and the banks. It was learned that 
members of the Legislature and officers of the banks had 
been accommodated beyond the sum total of all the favors 
granted the rest of the people of the State. 

Vigorous opposition blocked continuously Governor 
Fitzpatrick's efforts to reform the banks, but economy was 
begun in all offices of the State and the banks. Taxes 
were re-established. Banks were forbidden to lend money 
or to increase their debts, and the four branch-banks were 
put in liquidation. 

The credit of the State and the private fortunes of the 
people were still in jeopardy when Nathaniel Terry was 
nominated for governor in May, 1845, by an incomplete 
Democratic Convention in Tuskaloosa. He was largely 
indebted to the banks, and favored their continuance. 
Chancellor Joshua Lanier Martin, a lifelong democrat, 
declared himself a candidate for governor on the issue of 
bank reform. 

For a time party lines were oblitel*ated. Both candi- 
dates were Democrats, and at the election Whigs and 



88 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Democrats voted as they judged the merits of the issues 
before the country. Martin was overwhelmingly elected. 
His majority was more than ^yq thousand votes. In his 
message to the General Assembly he recommended the 
legal removal of the president and directors of the banks. 
Francis S. Lyon, of Demopolis, William Cooper, of Flor- 
ence, and C. C. Clay, of Huntsville, were elected commis- 
sioners, but soon the business was relegated altogether to 
Mr. Lyon, with John Whiting for his assistant. Mr. Lyon 
was a most able and singularly pure man. He discharged 
the duties of his office with such judgment and discretion 
as to restore to par the bills of the banks, to confirm the 
credit of the State, and to save from bankruptcy thou- 
sands of citizens whose financial interests depended upon 
his ability and sense of justice. 

Other States and Europe watched anxiously the course 
of Mr. Lyon, and the restoration of the State's monetary 
equilibrium placed him among the most worthy bene- 
factors of Alabama. Governor Fitzpatrick, Judge John 
A. Campbell, Governor Martin, and others are sharers in 
the glory of the measures of reform, but to Mr. Lyon are 
due most directly the gratitude and pride of the State for 
the far-reaching benefits of his six years' devotion to the 
renewal, redemption, and regeneration of public confi- 
dence and credit.^ 

^ Francis Strother Lyon was a North Carolinian by birth, but removed 
to Alabama in his youth. He was Secretary of the Senate of Alabama, 
1822 to 1830; a State Senator, 1832 to 1834; representative in Congress, 
1835 to 1839; bank commissioner, 1846 to 1853; a representative in the 
Confederate Congress, 1861 to 1865 ; he was a nephew of George S. and 
General E. P. Gaines, and the father of Mrs. Wm. H. Eoss and Mrs. 
O. H. Prince. 




William Lowndes Yancey. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



WILLIAM LOWNDES YANCEY. 

William Lowndes Yancey was born at Ogeeche Shoals, 
in Georgia, in 1814. Thoroughly instructed in prepara- 
tory schools and trained in the courses of Williams College, 
he entered upon the study of law in the office of Benja- 
min F. Perry, in Greenville, South Carolina. He was soon 
a participant in public debates on questions of national 
legislation. He opposed vehemently the " Ordinance of 
Nullification " in a Fourth-of-July speech when he was 
but twenty years of age, and at that time signalled the 
forces of brain and heart which carried him on to fame. 

Mr. Yancey has been justly called "the Demosthenes 
of the South," and "the Patrick Henry of the Second 

89 



90 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Revolution." His mother was a daughter of Colonel 
William Bird, whose home in Pennsylvania was a refuge 
for oppressed patriots of the Revolution. One of Colonel 
Bird's sisters married a signer of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, and two others married Revolutionary states- 
men. 

Mr. Yancey's father was of Welsh extraction and Revo- 
lutionary connections ; he had served gallantly as a mid- 
shipman on the United States war-ship The Constitution 
before giving his splendid talents to the profession of law. 
This gifted father died early, leaving his two sons, William 
Lowndes and Benjamin Cudworth, to the care of their 
mother, "a woman of remarkable intellect and rare 
accomplishments." 

Both sons became distinguished in public service, and 
to the influence and training of their noble mother are to 
be largely attributed the growth of character and spirit 
which made them conspicuous leaders in history. 

In 1834, Yancey was editor of the Greenville Mountaineer, 
and wielded his trenchant pen for liberty and the Union. 
In public speeches he startled audiences by his eloquence 
and logic. Two years later he came with his young wife 
to Alabama, and settled with his slaves on a plantation in 
Dallas County. 

On a visit to Greenville, South Carolina, while in con- 
versation with some gentlemen respecting congressional 
candidates, he was given the " lie " by Elias Earle, a 
youth of seventeen and a cousin to Mrs. Yancey. Mr. 
Yancey boxed the young man's jaws. Young Earle 
resented manfully with his riding whip. His father, 
Dr. Robinson Earle, a few days later attacked Mr. Yancey, 
and was shot to death in the personal encounter thereby 
precipitated. Mr. Yancey was tried, convicted, and fined 



WILLIAM LOWNDES YANCEY. 91 

$1500 and given twelve months imprisonment. The 
judge stated that " he could impute no moral guilt, as 
what had happened seemed to be entirely accidental." 
Governor Patrick Noble removed the penalty of imprison- 
ment and remitted $1000 of the fine. 

Mr. Yancey returned to Alabama. He bought a few 
acres in Coosa County, where he could spend the summers 
with his family away from the malaria of his newly 
cleared plantation. He was happy in the bosom of his 
family and the success of his business. The philosophy 
of government and the care of agricultural interests 
occupied him in a manner entirely suited to his tastes and 
ambition. His negroes were sufficiently numerous to 
guarantee him substantial independence. 

In 1839, during his summer absence in Coosa County, 
his overseer offended a neighbor's overseer. A spring of 
water at which Mr. Yancey's overseer was accustomed to 
drink was poisoned. The overseer on that special day 
did not pass the spring as usual, but the negroes drank of 
it. The skill of physicians and Mr. Yancey's careful 
nursing and personal attention saved but few of them. 
Crops went to ruin. Mr. Yancey at once assumed redemp- 
tion of fortune by pushing the Wetumpka Argus, of which 
he was editor, and by renewed devotion to the law. 
Though urged by friends he refused benefit of bankrupt 
laws, and proudly pressed himself to full payment of his 
debts. 

The political forces were driving to sharpest issues. In 
1840, Henry Clay failed of nomination for President of 
the United States. The Abolitionist journals of the North 
said his defeat was due to his devotion to slavery, and 
indicated the national judgment "that a slaveholder is 
incapacitated for President of the United States." William 



92 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Henry Harrison, by vote of the Northern Whigs, was 
nominated for President, and John Tyler of Virginia was 
named for Vice-President. The campaign following 
brought out the sectional animosities of the Union, and 
foreshadowed the war between the States. 

The North was numerically stronger than the South 
and ignored southern interests, passing laws hostile to 
southern development and threatening to liberty and 
property. Though southern statesmen fought the meas- 
ures antagonistic to southern dignity and rights, and 
placed upon the records of national legislation arguments 
as sublime as any that ever throbbed in brains of patriots 
and sages, yet all was unavailing. The avalanche of 
aggression and anti-slavery sentiment swept the North, 
and men forgot courtesy in the mad discussions of the 
hour. 

Mr. Yancey was a pronounced Democrat, an ardent 
patriot, a scholarly gentleman, a lover of justice, a chiv- 
alrous champion of the South and her institutions, and 
in the tumultous years to follow he was inspired by the 
resolution to " commit no wrong, relinquish no right." 
He was a close student of men, and probed into their 
character and motives. He espoused the Constitution as 
the sacred guardian of rights and liberties. He loved the 
Union and yielded to the conviction of necessary division 
only because he observed the settled policies of the more 
populous North to be arrogant and unjust to the South. 

The doctrine of secession was born in New England 
and nurtured in the North. Nullification in South Caro- 
lina came many years after the " Hartford Convention." 
The continuous outrages in northern States, in violation 
of enactments of Congress and decisions of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, added insults to the injuries 



WILLIA3r LOWNDES YANCEY. 93 

of the South. Mr. S. S. Cox says, " Not at any time in 
South Carolina, among the most ardent of the Calhoun 
school, was nullification more rife or aggressive than 
among the Ohio abolitionists." 

Mr. Yancey was a member of the Alabama Legislature 
in 1841. The following year he formed a law-partnership 
in Wetumpka with the eloquent and polished Sampson 
W. Harris, gave up the editorship of newspapers, and 
shared the profits of a lucrative law business. As State 
Senator from Coosa and Autauga Counties in 1843, he 
opposed the enumeration of negroes for a basis of repre- 
sentation, and aided to enact the law protecting estates of 
married women. Though scarcely thirty years old, he 
spoke with much wisdom and acknowledged eloquence 
upon the issues before the Senate. 

In 1844, he succeeded to the seat of Dixon H. Lewis in 
the United States Congress. While in Congress he replied 
to Thomas L. Clingman of North Carolina, whose bitter 
speech against southern Democrats charged them as dis- 
turbers of the peace. This reply was remarkable for 
power and directness. It brought Mr. Clingman's chal- 
lenge and the resultant duel. Neither gentleman was 
wounded in the duel and reconciliation followed. 

The laws of Alabama proscribed duelling, but the Legis- 
lature of the following winter passed, over Governor 
Martin's veto, a bill relieving Mr. Yancey of the disa- 
bilities of the duelling act. His popularity made him a 
welcome guest in all communities and re-elected him to 
Congress by a large vote. He said that his canvasses for 
the two elections did not cost him five dollars. 

His " brilliant genius laborously trained " shone with 
distinguished splendor in the Twenty-ninth Congress. 
He was emphatically an active member. His speeches 



94 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

were so masterful and eloquent that press and people 
compared him with the great orators of the Old World. 
His fame and abilities brought invitations to speak in 
New York City, Boston, Baltimore, and elsewhere. He 
resigned his seat in Congress before the expiration of his 
second term, professing himself too poor to be a congress- 
man. 

Dr. J. B. Hawthorne, the eminent Baptist divine, him- 
self a most eloquent orator, says that Mr. Yancey possessed 
" the four great elements of oratory — reason, imagination, 
passion, and action. In argument he was the peer of 
Webster and Calhoun. He was as resistless as an Alpine 
avalanche. When he had finished his discussion it 
seemed impossible to escape from his conclusions or to 
view the subject in any other light than that in which he 
had presented it. In imagination he was not the equal 
of Webster or Burke or Prentiss. His flights were some- 
times vaulting, but always easy and natural. There was 
never the semblance of extravagance. His fancy, like 
Milton's Eve, was graceful in every step. He was always 
impassioned, and when the storm of his invective burst 
upon his political adversaries they smelt brimstone in the 
air and felt that the day of judgment had come. But with 
all of his passion and impetuosity there was the most per- 
fect self-control. His gestures were few and unpremedi- 
tated, but magnetic in the last degree. In the strength, 
flexibility, compass, clearness, and vibrant quality of his 
voice Yancey had no equal." 

Mr. Yancey was a delegate to most of the great con- 
ventions of his party. He was sincere and incorruptible. 
His enemies doubted his judgment, but never his honor. 
He removed to Montgomery, and there continued the 
practice of law. Here, too, lived his distinguished an- 



WILLIAM LOWNDES YANCEY. 95 

tagonist, the superb Henry W. Hilliard. These two, with 
their friends, made Montgomery the focus of political 
opinions for the South. Mr. Yancey wrote the Alabama 
Platform of 1848, which was that year adopted by the 
State, and in 1856 by the National Democratic Conven- 
tion at Cincinnati, being rejected by the Charleston Con- 
vention in 1860. 

A coolness came between Mr. Yancey and his party in 
1848. He denounced the Baltimore Convention, and 
would not vote for Mr. Cass, the Democratic nominee for 
President. He wanted the position of the nominee to 
agree with the Alabama Platform which forbade restric- 
tions on the introduction or the holding of slaves in any 
territory previous to its admission as a State. Mr. Cass 
championed pro-slavery principles, but leaned to " squatter 
sovereignty." Until 1856, Mr. Yancey held aloof from the 
Democratic party, but the convention of that year held in 
Montgomery restored him to leadership, and henceforward 
he absolutely controlled political action in Alabama. 

Mr. Calhoun tried to force the issue of slaves or no 
slaves in the territories. He said, " We are now (1849) 
stronger relatively than we shall be hereafter politically 
or morally." It was believed by him and by Yancey 
that compromises were dangerous, and gave the North 
the opportunity to increase its strength and more surely 
defy the rights of States. 

The Free Soilers refused to abide by the Missouri Com- 
promise,^ and insisted upon abolition in all the territories. 

1 When Missouri Territory applied, 1818, for admission as a State into 
the Union, the Constitution it offered was met by a resolution to amend 
by a clause prohibiting slavery. Bitter debates ensued in Congress during 
1820, the Senate affirming and the House of Kepresentatives condemning 
the amended Constitution offered. Mr. Thomas, of Illinois, offered areso- 



96 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

They would permit no master to travel with a slave 
through the North, nor to recover a fugitive slave from a 
northern State, and expressed the desire of dissolution of 
the Union. Senator Hale of New Hampshire presented 
to the United States Senate a petition for the dissolution 
of the Union. Senators Seward, Chase, and Hale voted to 
receive it. The Abolitionists' banner bore the inscription, 
" The Constitution a Covenant with Death, an Agreement 
with Hell." 

The death of President Taylor in 1849 probably post- 
poned the conflict of arms between the States. The Free 
Soilers desired, in violation of the Missouri Compromise, 
to exclude slavery from New Mexico. The Wilmot Pro- 
viso provoked wildest excitement and indignation in the 
South.^ It was attacked by Whigs and Democrats alike. 
The situation was extremely nervous. The Compromise 
of 1850 proposed to exclude slavery from New Mexico and 
Utah, and the debates brought Mr. Seward's death knell to 
the Constitution when in answer to the speech of Mr. Cal- 
houn he said, " There is a higher law than the Constitution." 

lution for a compromise; upon this resolution was based the "Missouri 
Compromise," by which Missouri was admitted as a State, and slavery ex- 
cluded from all the rest of the Louisiana Territory north of 36° 30' north 
latitude. Henry Clay was largely instrumental in effecting the " Compro- 
mise. ' ' 

1 Congress, in 1846, put about $2,000,000 at the command of President 
Polk to conclude a treaty with Mexico and to pay for a considerable tract 
of land to be secured. To this bill David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, 
offered a Proviso prohibiting slavery from any territory that might be 
acquired. This would exclude slavery from a large section south of 
36° 30', and was opposed by the South. It was merged in the "Com- 
promise of 1850 " in the "Omnibus Bill " of Mr. Clay, which admitted 
California as a free State, and effected the organization, without the 
"Wilmot Proviso, of all territory acquired from Mexico into the two 
territories, New Mexico and Utah. 



WILLIAM LOWNDES YANCEY. 97 

The northern States effected nullification by enacting 
personal liberty bills. The leading Free Soil journal 
addressed an ode to the United States flag, headlined 
" Tear Down that Flaunting Lie." William Lloyd Garri- 
son was admitted to Faneuil Hall and Mr. Webster 
excluded. John Brown was secretly aided with money 
by prominent people of the North, and when justice 
overtook the old outlaw and he was hanged, Mr. Emerson 
and others regarded him as a martyr whose execution 
" would glorify the gallows." The same distorted spirit 
cursed Chief-Justice Taney of the Supreme Court of the 
United States for his decision of the Dred Scott case. In 
many ways the anti-southern and anti-slavery sentiment 
manifested contempt for fundamental laws and compacts 
of the Union. The law of self-preservation forced Mr. 
Yancey and the South to the fight for honor, liberty, and 
life. Mr. Yancey became leader of the southern Demo- 
crats in efforts to roll back the tide of injustice and conse- 
quent disunion. He led the Alabama delegation out of 
the Charleston Conventon, effected the nomination of 
Breckenridge and Lane, toured the country in triumphal 
visits, speaking in New England, New York, Ohio, Ken- 
tucky, and other States, pleading for the cool judgment 
that would preserve justice and the Union. To this end 
he would defeat the election of Mr. Lincoln to the presi- 
dency of the United States. 

Mr. Yancey drew up and secured the passage of the 
" Ordinance of Secession." He believed secession could be 
effected without war. In this he was mistaken. The war 
came. He vainly urged President Davis to pledge the 
ports of the Confederacy open for twenty years to England 
and France at twenty per cent, ad valorum duty in ex- 
change for their recognition. Mr. Davis offered to Mr. 
7 



98 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Yancey any position he might choose in the official role 
of the Confederate States. Yancey refused to choose, but 
accepted the appointment of Commissioner of the Con- 
federate States to the Court of St. James. As he antici- 
pated before leaving this country, he was not recognized 
at the English court, nor could he effect England's recog- 
nition of the independence of the Confederate States. In 
February, 1862, he returned home, broken in health and 
depressed in spirits. He was elected to the Confederate 
States Senate and served his country with his wonted 
activity and patriotism. He died in Montgomery July 27, 
1863. 

Yancey was the truest of patriots and tlie greatest 
orator of his day. His perfect mastery over the passions 
of men was confirmed in New York, Cincinnati, and 
Memphis, where opponents hissed and scoffed his appear- 
ance on the rostrum, but soon, captured by the witchery 
of his eloquence and the force of his arguments, softened 
into respectful silence, and went away with Cato's solilo- 
quy, " It must be so, Yancey ; thou reasonest well." 

Measured by the devotion of the South to the cause he 
advocated and the four long war-stained years, with battles 
such as the world never before witnessed, he must rank 
among the greatest men of our nation. 




Henry Washing'ton Hilliard. 

CHAPTER XIV. 
HENRY WASHINGTON HILLIARD. 

Henry W. Hilliard was a North Carolinian by birth, 
but during his early boyhood his parents moved into 
South Carolina, and settled in Columbia, where he spent 
his youth. AVhen eighteen years old he was graduated 
with distinction from the University of South Carolina. 
He studied law and was admitted to the bar at Athens, 
Georgia. 

From 1831 to 1834 he filled the chair of English Litera- 
ture in the University of Alabama. He was eminently 
^fitted for this chair. His tastes were thoroughly classical, 
and he loved to introduce young manhood into the 
beauties and culture of the classic authors. He was a 
most admirable reader, and he delighted to entertain his 
LofC. 99 



100 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

pupils and older friends in reading from the best authors. 
He loved the productions of the ancient masters, and de- 
voted himself assiduously to the works of Demosthenes and 
Cicero, trying to catch the secret of their oratory and power. 

He was a master of elocution. His voice was naturally 
sweet and under perfect control, while his brilliant intel- 
lect, responsive sympathies, and superb physical stature 
combined to make him impressive. His genius was too 
versatile to be satisfied with the quietude of college life. 
His ambition yearned for fields of more stirring activities. 
He resigned his chair in the University and entered upon 
the practice of law in the city of Montgomery. Here he 
added to his friends and won his fame. Through the 
State Legislature he moved into higher public offices. 
Upon the nomination of William Henry Harrison for the 
presidency of the United States, Mr. Hilliard placed before 
the great Whig Convention at Harrisburg the name 
of John Tyler of Virginia for Vice-President. This act 
commended him to Mr. Tyler and secured his appoint- 
ment as minister to Belgium, where he mingled with 
kings and queens and tl:ie most cultured diplomats of the 
world. Judge William R. Smith says of him, " He was a 
man to stand before the king. His personal appearance 
at all times and in all places was elegant, commanding, 
and courtly." 

The annexation of Texas was at this time agitating the 
two worlds. King Leopold accorded Hilliard full con- 
fidence. Belgium did not protest against the annexation. 
His ministry was satisfactory and helpful to our govern- 
ment. 

Upon his return to Alabama he w^as elected to represent 
the State in the United States Congress. In that great 
body he displayed commendable energy and interest 



HENRY WASHINGTON HILLIARD. 101 

in current issues. His speech on the Oregon boundary- 
line sympathized with the sentiment " fifty-four forty or 
fight." Mr. Yancey opposed the war spirit, endorsing 
fully Mr. Calhoun's " masterly inactivity " doctrine. 

Congress disappointed Mr. Hilliard. It did not receive 
his speeches as he anticipated. His great models wielded 
their mighty oratory in an age far ditierent from ours, 
when public questions found solutions in public assem- 
blies, and committees had not encroached upon personal 
privileges. It palled his sensibilities to look upon mem- 
bers of Congress engaged in cracking jokes, eating pea- 
nuts, writing letters, mailing papers, and utterly indiffer- 
ent to his impassioned speeches. 

He admired Webster and Clay. He antagonized the 
Wilmot Proviso. He voted for the Compromise of 1850. 
He opposed secession, but fought law^s w^hich excluded 
slavery from the territories. He followed Alabama in 
secession, and on the outbreak of war he w^as made com- 
missioner to Tennessee. He afterward raised a regiment 
of three thousand men for the Confederate service. 

After the war he returned to Georgia and practiced law 
in Augusta and Atlanta. He advocated the election of 
Horace Greely to the presidency of the United States. 

President Hayes appointed him minister to Brazil. 
While in this service he aided in affecting the emancipa- 
tion of the slaves. The government of Brazil requested 
his views on the slavery issue then stirring Brazil, and he 
submitted in writing a letter which w^as published through- 
out the world and produced a profound impression, com- 
ing as it did from an ex-slaveholder. In the letter he not 
only advocated emancipation, but suggested seven years 
as the time for emancipation to be effected. He was feted 
by the Anti-Slavery Society of Brazil, and his speech on 



10^ SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

that eventful occasion contributed to his international 
reputation. It was published in the official " Bluebook " 
of Great Britain. 

He resigned his ministry when Garfield became Presi- 
dent, and resumed the practice of law in Atlanta. He 
died there December 17, 1892. 

He was a devout Methodist and often preached from 
Methodist pulpits. His Christian character imparted 
charm to his greatness. 

He was not the equal of Yancey as an orator, but he 
was the only man in the State who could meet Yancey in 
debate, always share in applause, and sometimes come 
off victor. The two were opposites in politics, but united 
on some of the great cardinal principles. Both con- 
demned exclusion of slavery, but Mr. Hilliard accepted 
compromises which Mr. Yancey spurned. Mr. Hilliard 
was the gentler, more polished, more cultured of the two, 
but Mr. Yancey was the more profound thinker and the 
better judge of men. Mr. Hilliard never failed to enter- 
tain. He always sustained his reputation as a thorough 
statesman and a brilliant orator. Mr. Yancey seldom 
failed to eclipse his past. Especially did he rise in public 
opinion when he met, before Northern a^idiences, the 
spirits that most opposed him. No compromise, but per- 
fect composure and confident power marked his speech. 

Mr. Hilliard loved popular applause, and while always 
guided by purest principles, he felt discontented when his 
efi'orts in the professor's chair, at the bar, in the pulpit, or 
in the halls of legislation failed to arouse demonstrative 
enthusiasm in his listeners. 

Mr. Yancey never failed to call forth intense interest. 
He became so buried in his subject as to be apparently 
indiff'erent to impressions. 



HENRY WASHINGTON HILLTARD. 103 

Both men helped to make history in peace and in war, 
and with conscious pride we should name them in love. 
All honor to their memory. 

Colonel Hilliard was a graceful writer, and has left 
Roman Nights; De Vane, a Story of Plebeians mid Patric- 
ians; Politics and Pen Pictures; and volumes of speeches 
and addresses. The latter is an interesting account of 
his most prominent political actions and his experiences 
among courts and people ahroad. 

De Vane is a charming novel of pure, chaste, elevating 
sentiment, full of beautiful pictures of college- and home- 
life, and abounding in intellectual and social pleasures. 
It is a sweet love-stor}^ mingled with the purest and 
highest associations of Christian and literary sentiment. 



CHAPTER XV. 
THE ORDINANCE OF SECESSION. 

There have always been two great political parties in 
our country. The nineteenth century was one of vast 
intellectual, social, and political development to our 
nation. The patriotism of the people has always been 
true and ardent, but the interests of the North and those 
of the South have been so divergent as to produce the 
sharpest political differences. 

In the early establishment of the nation, Alexander 
Hamilton loomed up as the champion of a strong central- 
ized government. He believed in government for the 
people, but not by the people. He drew his ideals from 
the monarchies of Europe. 

Thomas Jefferson believed in government by the people. 
His was the constructive genius of statesmanship which 
has given us instruments of legislation the most masterful 
in all the history of nations. The Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, dissertations on the Constitution of the United 
States, expositions of the great principles of democratic 
governments, and the founding of the University of Vir- 
ginia upon methods so progressive as to lead the educa- 
tional world, attest his wisdom. 

The debates expounding the Constitution have immor- 
talized the names of many statesmen, but Daniel Webster 
and John C. Calhoun stand out pre-eminent leaders of 
the two great principles advocated by Hamilton and 

105 



l06 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Jefferson. Webster construed the Constitution as delegat- 
ing to the general government all powers not expressly 
forbidden. Mr. Calhoun's construction reserved to the 
States all powers not expressly delegated to the general 
government. 

This difference in construction of the Constitution grad- 
ually evolved the issue of slavery. The representative 
men of the South had been deliberating on the gradual 
emancipation of slaves. Many held strong anti-slavery 
sentiments. Washington, Jefferson, John Randolph, and 
others gave practical evidence of their views by freeing a 
large number of their slaves. 

The American Colonization Societies were more numer- 
ous in the South than in the North until the close of the 
first quarter of the century. The Constitution of the 
United States guaranteed the right of property in slaves, 
and but for this guarantee the formation of the United 
States would have been impossible. The New England 
and Northern States abolished slavery because it was not 
profitable in their climate of long winters. The slave 
trade in the South was inaugurated and sustained by 
measures originated in New England. 

The admission of Missouri in 1820 brought up the slave 
controversies wdiich raged for two score years and brought 
on the war between the States. 

Missouri Territory had been settled by slaveholding 
emigrants from Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The 
Constitution presented by Missouri upon application for 
admission to statehood contained a clause recognizing 
slavery. Mr. Tallmadge, a Congressman from New York, 
proposed an amendment to prohibit the further introduc- 
tion of slavery and to emancipate all negro children born 
in the State after they should reach twenty-five years of 



The ordinance of secession. 107 

age. After long and bitter debates the territory was 
admitted as a slave State, but the Missouri Compromise 
excluded slavery from all territory to the north and west 
of it down to the parallel of 30° 30'. This was a pro- 
scription against the South, and gave her great offence. 
It counteracted the zeal in her borders for the Colonization 
Societies, crushed her anti-slavery sentiments, and made 
her intolerant of opposition. 

The South Carolina " Ordinance of Nullification" and the 
Pinckney resolution in Congress to table without further 
action " all petitions, memorials, resolutions, or proposi- 
tions bearing in any way, or to any extent whatever, on 
the subject of slavery" were feeders to the fires of sec- 
tional antipathies. The annexation of Texas was another 
pivot of contention. The abolition elements tried to ex- 
clude slavery from all newly acquired territory. 

The South was henceforth very sensitive on the subject 
of slavery and its recognition by the Constitution of the 
United States in express terms, while the North w^as 
equally stirred to pluck slavery from constitutional pro- 
tection and restrict its territory. The South contended for 
her rights under the Constitution. The North became 
infatuated by the doctrine that there is a higher law than 
the Constitution. Many States of the North made it a 
penal offence for their citizens to aid marshals of the 
United States in executing papers of arrest on fugitive 
slaves. So intense grew their fanaticism that they would 
have sacrificed the Union, rather than yield obedience to 
the slave provisions of the Constitution. The South was 
determined to sustain slavery even if disunion should 
follow. 

The Kansas troubles and the John Brown raid were 
other steps in the march of events. The Democratic Party 



108 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

split into three sections. The Republican Party in 1860 
elected Mr. Lincoln, whose avowed hostility to slavery led 
the South to believe that her rights would not be protected 
in the Union. History proves her conclusions to have 
been right. Disastrous as was the war that followed, it was 
the only practicable solution of the issues. Insolence and 
power would sooner or later have forced the conflict of 
sections. Even after the election of Mr. Lincoln, promi- 
nent statesmen of the South tried hard to eff*ect reconcilia- 
tion. The " Crittenden Compromise," offered to the Con- 
gress of 1860-1861, giving to the free States three-fourths 
of all the territory of the Union, and not absolutely bind- 
ing the other fourth to the admission or maintenance 
of slavery, was rejected, not by southern Democrats but 
by northern Republicans. Mr. Jefferson Davis and Mr. 
Toombs, whom the uninformed are disposed to charge with 
the responsibility of pressing the war, would have ac- 
cepted the "Crittenden Compromise" and voted for it 
rather than precipitate war. Under the circumstances 
war was inevitable. It had to come. 

By proclamation of A. B. Moore, Governor of Alabama, 
an election of delegates to the Secession Convention was 
held. These delegates met in Montgomery, January 7, 
1861. The delegates were divided in sentiment. Robert 
Jemison, William R. Smith, James S. Clarke, and thirty- 
six others opposed the " Ordinance of Secession," which 
was presented to the Convention by A. A. Coleman. 
William L. Yancey, Judge William M. Brooks, Senator 
John T. Morgan, and fifty-eight others favored it. Mr. 
Yancey closed the debates in a brilliant speech in favor 
of the secession resolution. "The die was cast." On 
January 11, 1861, the " Ordinance of Secession " was passed. 
The vote was taken in secret session, but when Judge 




The '■ Stars and Bars," the first flag of the Confederate States, 
adopted by the confederate congress in session at montgomery, 
Ala. It was raised to the top of staff on the capitol at Mont- 
gomery, March 4, I86I, by Miss L. C. Tyler of Virginia, the grand- 
daughter OF Ex-President John Tyler. 



THE ORDINANCE OF SECESSION. 109 

Brooks, the President of the Convention, announced the 
result of the vote, the doors of the State House were opened, 
and the lobby in a moment was filled with anxious citi- 
zens who were breathlessly waiting the announcement. 
As the multitude rushed in, there was unfurled in the 
centre of the hall a magnificent flag that almost spanned 
the ample chamber. Mr. Yancey, in behalf of the ladies of 
Montgomery, presented the flag to the Convention ; Judge 
William R. Smith, in accepting the flag for the Conven- 
tion, recalled the glories of the Star-spangled Banner and 
the devotion of woman to heroic service. He closed as 
follows: "We accept this flag; and, though it glows with 
but a single star, may that star increase in magnitude 
and brilliancy until it outrivals the historic glories of the 
Star-spangled Banner." 

Mr. Alpheus Baker, of Barbour County, in a thrilling 
and memorable speech, expressed to the ladies the thanks 
of the Convention. 

The cheering and enthusiasm were indescribable. The 
roar of cannon, the display of the new flag from windows 
and towers, the congratulations of orators, and the blend- 
ing of political parties, made a season of historic jubilee. 
"One universal glow of fervent patriotism kindled the 
enraptured community." States Rights men. Union men, 
and co-operatists forgot their difl'erences in the glad natal 
hour of a new republic. 

On the day following the adoption of the " Ordinance 
of Secession," the Alabama members in the Congress of 
the United States withdrew in a body. Three other States 
had already passed "Ordinances of Secession," and others 
quickly followed. Delegates from South Carolina, Georgia, 
Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama met in Mont- 
gomery, February 4, 1861, and formed the Confederate 




Inauguration of Jefferson Davis. 



110 



THE ORDINANCE OF SECESSION. Ill 

States of America by creating a provisional government 
and electing Jefferson Davis President, and Alexander 
H. Stephens Vice-President. Of this Congress Howell 
Cobb of Georgia was elected president. Johnson Jones 
Hooper of Alabama was the secretary. 

On February 18, 1861, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated 
President of the Confederate States of America on the 
portico of the capitol in Montgomery, " the cradle of the 
Confederacy." For three months this historic city was 
the capital of the Confederate States. From it went the 
order to fire on Fort Sumter, and in it were originated 
the plans for launching the new Republic on the tempest- 
uous sea of battle. 



CHAPTER XVI. 
THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 

Mr. Lincoln, in disguise, reached Washington, and in 
the midst of a hollow square of bayonets was conducted 
to the Capitol and inaugurated President of the United 
States, March 4, 1861. The bloodiest administration in 
the history of republics had begun. 

Governor A. B. Moore espoused zealously the Southern 
cause. He ordered State troops to seize Forts Morgan and 
Gaines at the entrance of Mobile Bay and also Mount 
Vernon arsenal, on the Mobile River, to prevent their 
occupation by United States troops for the invasion of 
Alabama. The Union sentiment in the northern por- 
tion of the State evoked the local proposition to form the 
northern counties into a new State, to be named " Nicka- 
jack," but the rush of events forbade it. 

The bombardment of Fort Sumter occurred April 13, 
1861. President Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand 
volunteers to coerce the seceding States. The whole 
country blazed with martial enthusiasm. Even before 
the passage of the " Ordinance of Secession '^ Alabama 
troops were busily engaged in drilling and preparing for 
war, and when the war-cloud broke over the Confederacy 
they enlisted promptly for active service. As Alabama 
was remote from anti-slavery States there was no imme- 
diate prospect of invasion by the Federals, and her brave 
sons marched to the battle-grounds of other States. The 
First Alabama infantry, under Colonel Henry D. Clayton, 

112 



THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 113 

remained at Pensacola during 1861, and then moved up 
into Tennessee, fighting at Island Number Ten, Fort Pil- 
low, Corinth, Port Hudson, New Hope, Atlanta, Nashville, 
and Bentonville; and was conspicuous with its thinned 
ranks at Goldsboro, North Carolina, when General Joseph 
E. Johnston surrendered to Sherman. 

The Second Regiment, under Colonel Harry Maury, 
protected Fort Morgan, and then became merged into other 
regiments. 

The Third Regiment, organized under Colonels Jones M. 
Withers and Tennent Lomax, participated in the battles of 
Malvern Hill, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, 
second Cold Harbor, Winchester, and Petersburg, and sur- 
rendered with only forty men at Appomattox. At Seven 
Pines it lost Colonel Lomax, far in advance of his regi- 
ment, and also its gallant captain, R. B. Johnson. Its 
depletion in every battle of its record told the story of 
chivalry and devotion. 

And so the history runs with other regiments. From a 
population of a little more than half a million, Alabama 
contributed about one hundred and twenty-five thousand 
soldiers to the Confederate cause, thirty thousand of whom 
fell before musket, cannon, and disease contracted by mili- 
tary service. Colonel William Henry Fowler, Superin- 
tendent of Army Records for Alabama, 1863 to 1865, 
reported " that Alabama sent more troops in proportion to 
her population than any other State, and that her loss was 
heavier than any other irrespective of population." 

In the early spring of 1862, the battle of Shiloh near 
Corinth, Mississippi, brought defeat to the Confederate 
arms. Their retreat opened the northern counties of Ala- 
bama to Federal troops. Scarcely ever have a brave people 
suffered greater indignities than the invaders inflicted 

8 



114 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

upon the defenceless citizens of Northern Alabama, where 
the Federals held almost unbroken sway from 1863 to 
1865. So many acts of vandalism and malicious cruelty 
were permitted that General Mitchell, one of the Federal 
commanders, was removed from office for his wanton en- 
couragement of the unrestrained license to pillage and 
humiliate the people. 

General P. D. Roddy in the fall of 1862 defeated the 
Federals at Little Bear Creek in Colbert County, and later 
at Barton's Station, driving them back to their stronghold 
at Corinth. On April 28, 1863, he was holding General 
Dodge at bay at Brown's Ferry when Forrest came to the 
assistance of the Confederates. The thunder of Dibbrell's 
cannon on the Federal position at Florence called off 
Dodge, whose retreat left in its wake all the desolation 
that fire could work in the beautiful valley. Forrest 
dashed away to the pursuit and capture of Colonel 
Streight. 

Raids and detached engagements kept North Alabama 
in perpetual suspense. Marshall County especially suf- 
fered. The Federals shelled Guntersville several times 
without giving warning, and finally burned it. Captain H. 
F.Smith, of Jackson County, with a daring force of sixty- 
five Confederates, on the night of March 8, 1864, captured, 
in Claysville, sixty-six Federals and large quantities of 
stores and provisions. In May following, Colonel Pater- 
son, of Morgan County, assisted by a battalion of artillery, 
attacked the Federal stockade in Madison County, cap- 
turing eighty prisoners and an immense quantity of pro- 
visions. 

In July, the Federal General Rousseau passed down the 
Coosa River with nearly two thousand men, tore up the 
railroads, and burned the depots about Loachapoka, Au- 



THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 115 

burn, and Opelika, but the citizens and youth who formed 
the State reserves drove him away into Georgia. 

In September, General Forrest captured Athens, with 
many horses and fourteen hundred Federals under Colonel 
Campbell, and defeated the detachment sent for relief; he 
captured Sulphur Trestle two days later, with eight hun- 
dred and twenty men and a large number of horses and 
loaded wagons. 

To divert attention and troops from Mobile, General 
James H. Wilson started from Lauderdale County in 1865 
with thirteen thousand five hundred troops in three divis- 
ions, under Generals McCook, Long, and Upton. Generals 
Roddy and Forrest were to harass and check him. Sev- 
eral engagements failed to stop the overwhelming Federal 
forces. The rolling-mills and collieries with much other 
property about Montevallo were destroyed. Colonel Crox- 
ton turned aside to Tuskaloosa, entered it April 4th, burnt 
the University, destroyed the foundries and factories, and 
all other public property ; turned west and was whipped 
by General Wirt Adams, at Pleasant Ridge, in Greene 
County. General Adams, misinformed, proceeded to Co- 
lumbus, Mississippi, where he hoped again to encounter 
Croxton. Croxton, however, marched northeast to the 
capture of Talladega, and then on toward Jacksonville, 
skirmishing here and there with such straggling forces as 
the Confederates could muster. 

General Wilson reached Selma April 2d, and threw his 
veterans against the city. Forrest was in command of the 
defenses, but he had less than seven thousand men, and 
many of these were inexperienced recruits. The Federals 
swept away all opposition and captured Selma; brave 
hearts bravely resisted, but to no avail ; twenty-five hun- 
dred Confederate prisoners were taken. Here again indis- 



116 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

criminate pillage was permitted. The Confederate arsenal 
and foundries were destroyed, and General Wilson marched 
on to Montgomery, which he entered without opposition 
on April 12th. Among the wrecks of his visit is to be num- 
bered the burning of the files of the Montgomery Advertiser ^ 
thus trying to blot out the glorious records of the people 
of Alabama during the most gigantic struggle of the nine- 
teenth century. 

On April 16th, General LaGrange, with three thousand 
men, attacked the small garrison of one hundred and 
four youths and convalescents in Fort Tyler, near West 
Point, on the edge of Chambers County. General Tyler, 
in command of the fort, was slain ; Captain Gonzalez, his 
successor, w^as mortally wounded ; Captain Parhan, the 
next in command, displayed equal courage, but the Fed- 
erals scaled the walls and tore down the Confederate flag 
from its last stronghold, the attack on Columbus, Georgia, 
of the same date, having closed a little earlier in the day. 
Thus Alabama cradled the birth and watched the last 
struggle of the Confederate States of America. 

The young artillerist, the " gallant Pelham," who was 
killed by a shell at Kelly's Ford, on the Rappahannock, 
March 17, 1863, was Alabama's beloved soldier boy. 

Of Confederate generals it may be said that John B. 
Gordon enlisted as captain of the Highland Dragoons, the 
" Raccoon Roughs " of Jackson County. R. E. Rodes led 
one division of Jackson's corps at Chancel lorsville, sending 
panic into the lines of Hooker ; commanded the troops of 
D. H. Hill after the death of Hill ; and was complimented 
by Lee's sending a special officer to commend his conduct 
at Gettysburg ; he died from a shell wound at Winchester. 
James Longstreet, Josiah Gorgas, W. W. Allen, Daniel 
Leadbetter, CuUen A. Battle, James Cantey, J. T. Holtzclaw, 



THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 



117 



James H. Clanton, Henry D. Clayton, and many other 
Alabamians won the 
general's star, and led 
their valiant legions into 
the battles of M-anassas, 
Seven Pines, Chancel- 
lorsville, Sharpsburg, 
Gettysburg, Cold Har- 
bor, Fredericksburg, 
Murfreesborough, 
C h i c k a m a 11 g a , New 
Hope, Atlanta, Shiloh, 
Nashville, and Frank- 
lin; hardly an import- 
ant battle of the war 
failed to evidence the 
valor of Alabama sol- 
diers. 

At the close of the 
war, poverty and deso- 
lation stalked through 
the State. The black- 
ened ruins of homes 
and villas, and the pres- 
ence of the Federals in the towns and cities and through- 
out the rural districts, spread a dark pall over the future. 




The Confederate Monument. 



L '% 







Admiral Raphael Semmes. 

CHAPTER XVII. 
ADMIRAL RAPHAEL SEMMES. 

Admiral Raphael Semmes was born in 1809, in Mary- 
land, of Catholic lineage. In 1826, President John Quincy 
Adams appointed him a midshipman in the navy. He 
was thus early and long connected with what has been 
significantly termed "■ the old navy." 

During a furlough he read law and was admitted to 
the bar ; not with any disposition to leave the navy, but 
because the knowledge of law would better fit him for 
naval office and efficiency. 

His constant service led him gradually up through the 
grades of office. In 1842, he moved his family to Ala- 
bama, and a few years later settled in Mobile. 

118 



ADMIRAL RAPHAEL SEMMES. 119 

At the outbreak of the Mexican War he became flag- 
lieutenant under Commodore Connor, and commanded 
the shore battery of breaching guns at the siege of Vera 
Cruz. He commanded the brig Somers of the blockade 
squadron along the coast of Mexico, and was on board off 
Verde Island, December 10, 1846, when a " norther " 
struck his vessel with such sudden violence that it 
foundered in ten minutes and hurled into a watery death 
thirty-nine of the seventy-six men composing the crew. 

He was for many years connected with the Light-house 
Service along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and was 
made Secretary of the Light-house Board in Washington. 

When Alabama passed the " Ordinance of Secession," 
he resigned both his office in the United States Navy and 
his membership in the Light-house Board, and repaired 
immediately to Montgomery. President Jefferson Davis 
sent him at once to the North to buy munitions of war 
and to engage skilled mechanics for the manufacture of 
war supplies. 

Captain Semmes, having executed his commission in 
the North, returned to Montgomery. Fort Sumter was 
fired on just eight days afterward. The whole country 
blazed with marshal enthusiasm. Five days later, April 
18, 1861, Hon. S. R. Mallory, Secretary of the Navy of the 
Confederate States of America, commissioned Captain 
Semmes to the command of the Sumter, the first Confeder- 
ate warship to have the honor of throwing to the breeze 
the Confederate flag. She was only a packet-ship, and 
had to be overhauled and converted into a warship. On 
June oOth, she steamed through Pass I'Outre out of the 
Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico, and after an 
exciting race with the United States man-of-war Brooklyn, 
there on blockade duty, escaped to sea. She had a gallant 



120 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

crew. Her second lieutenant was Robert T. Chapman of 
Alabama. 

The orders to Captain Semmes were to " do the greatest 
injury to the enemy's commerce in the shortest time." 
Naval Solicitor John A. Bolles said eleven years after- 
ward, " Never, in naval history, has such an order been 
so signally obeyed : never has there occurred so striking 
an example of the tremendous power of mischief possessed 
by a single cruiser acting upon the destructive plan as 
that furnished by the Sumter and her successor, the Ala- 
bama, under the command of Semmes, whose untiring 
activity, restless energy, and fiery zeal found no voyage 
too long, no movement too prompt or too rapid, no danger 
too great, no labor too wearisome, in the accomplishment 
of the Confederate purpose to ruin our commerce by 
destroying our ships and their cargoes or driving them 
from the ocean." 

On July 3d, between Cuba and the Isle of Pines, Captain 
Semmes overhauled his first prize, a merchant vessel 
named " The Golden Rocket," and burned it on the high 
seas. Within a few hours he captured six more prizes and 
carried them into Cienfuegos Bay ; but Spain declared her 
territory neutral, and the captured vessels were permitted 
to escape. 

The Sumter had a most thrilling escape from the 
Iroquois, a United States gunboat that blockaded her at 
St. Pierre on the Island of Martinique. The Iroquois was 
twice as large as the Sumter, and waited for nine days 
just outside the marine league to catch the Sumter when 
she attempted to leave. On the night of November 23d, 
Captain Semmes made a dash to the south. A Yankee 
schooner at anchor near the Sumter gave signal of his 
course to the Iroquois. After a short run the Sumter 



ADMIRAL RAPHAEL SEMITES. 121 

" doubled " on her track and shot away to the north. The 
Iroquois bounded to the south. A rain storm came on : 
the Sumter was free. 

Captain Semmes crossed the Atlantic, captured and 
burned the American bark Neapolitan in the Straits of 
Gibraltar, " in the sight of Europe and Africa, with the 
turbaned Moor on the one hand and the garrison of 
Gibraltar on the other looking upon the conflagration." 
He anchored in the harbor of Gibraltar. Unable to buy 
coal, and blockaded by three Federal gunboats, he sold 
the Sumter. Her new master refitted her for merchant 
service and named her Gibraltar. She made a trip to the 
Confederate States of America and ran the blockade of 
Charleston. She foundered and sank in the North Sea. 

The Confederate cruiser Alabama is the most celebrated 
warship in histor3^ She was built by the Messrs. Laird 
& Sons at Birkenhead near Liverpool on the Mersey 
E/iver. She was fitted with both sails and steam. She 
was known at the ship-yards as " Number 290." She 
moved from British waters under protest from Federal 
officers. Near the Azores Captain Semmes met her with 
military equipment, officers and crew, which were trans- 
ferred to her. In September, 1862, Captain Semmes read 
his commission to the sailors and launched the Alabama 
on her memorable career. By accident, several officers 
of the Sumter failed to get on the Alabama. 

Captain Semmes was a scientific and literary man, and 
his observations on animal and vegetable life and on 
winds and tides are full of interest. His knowledge of 
the whale and its habitat directed him to the fishing- 
grounds of the whalers, where many vessels were captured 
and burned, becoming, as he himself expressed it, " victims 
to the passions of man and the fury of the elements." 



122 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

He moved the Alabama to within two hundred miles 
of New York City, captured and burned several vessels, 
but sent a lumber craft with the captains and crews of 
three burned vessels into the city with his compliments to 
Mr. Low, of the Chamber of Commerce, for resolutions 
regarding the Alabama. He enjoyed the exasperation of 
the North over his successes. The newspapers abused 
him fearfully. They falsely represented him as a cruel 
and merciless pirate. 

Passing into the Gulf of Mexico to intercept Federal 
transports conveying troops to Texas, he met at night the 
gunboat Hatteras off the coast of Galveston, engaged it, 
sank it in fifteen minutes, and saved every man of the 
sinking ship. He made a brief visit to Jamaica, where 
music, cordiality, and hospitable courtesies refreshed 
officers and men before the Alabama's departure to the 
" Toil-Gate," as Captain Semmes named the narrow strip 
of ocean separating Africa and Brazil. 

New England skippers and northern merchants soon 
awoke to realize that the Alabama was abroad on the seas, 
stepping "with her seven-league boots" alongside every 
vessel she could sight, and burning it, because the United 
States Government left no port to which it could be sent, 
refusing to concede to the Confederate States any rights 
by international laws for the adjudgment of prizes captured 
at sea. 

The Alabama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope 
into the Indian Ocean, carrying dismay into those far-off 
waters. No one had supposed she would venture so far, 
but there she was, weathering monsoons and lighting the 
shore of Asia with the wild flames of burning ships. She 
returned to the Atlantic and kept up her work of destruc- 
tion. Finally, she dropped anchor in the harbor of Cher- 



ADMIRAL RAPHAEL SEMMES. 123 

bourg, France. Two days later the United States man-of- 
war Kearsarge, Captain Winslow commanding, entered 
the same harbor. The challenge of battle from the Kear- 
sarge was accepted. On June 19, 1864, a bright Sunday 
morning, at 11.10 o'clock, the battle joined. In one hour 
and twenty minutes the Alabama went down to her rest- 
ing place in the bottom of the sea not far from the spot 
where her elder sister, the gallant Sumter, was sleeping. 
One of her shells penetrated the stern-post of the Kear- 
sarge, but did not explode. This doubtless permitted 
victory to the Kearsarge. A section of the post with the 
imbedded shell was cut from the Kearsarge, and is now 
among the curios of war in the Navy Yard Museum in 
Washington City, the only relic of the Alabama in posses- 
sion of the United States. 

Captain Semmes hauled down his colors as the Ala- 
bama began to sink, but the Kearsarge continued to fire. 
He sent his wounded in boats to the Kearsarge. Captain 
Winslow was not prompt to send relief, and permitted ten 
of the Alabama's men to drown. More would have 
drowned but for the French pilot-boat and the Deerhound, 
the steam yacht of Mr. Lancaster, an English gentleman. 
At the last moment Captain Semmes threw his sword into 
the sea, and leaped in with First Lieutenant Kell. They 
were picked up by the Deerhound and carried to England, 
where royal treatment was accorded them. The English 
presented to Semmes a beautiful new sword, and refused 
to surrender him to Captain Winslow. The Geneva Con- 
ference in 1872, in settling the " Alabama Claims," 
awarded the United States $15,000,000 from Great Britain 
for damages computed to have been inflicted on the 
United States commerce by the Alabama, under Captain 
Semmes, and the Shenandoah, under Captain Waddell. 



124 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Captain Semmes returned to the Confederate States, was 
made Admiral, and put in command of the James River 
fleet. Upon the evacuation of Richmond he blew up his 
fleet, made landsmen of his "jackies," and carried them 
by train to Danville, where he formed a brigade and sur- 
rendered with General Johnston in North Carolina. 

In 1865, Admiral Semmes was arrested by order of 
Gideon Welles, the Secretary of the Navy, and imprisoned 
for four months in the Marine Barracks in Washington. 
He was released without trial. 

The people elected him Probate Judge of Mobile County, 
but President Johnson refused to let him serve. He then 
took up the practice of law, and passed his remaining 
years among beloved friends and in civil pursuits. He 
died August 30, 1877, at Point Clear. His remains rest 
in the Catholic Cemetery near Mobile. During the day 
of his burial " in the city tributes of respect were every- 
where to be seen. From the consular office, from the 
boats, from the shipping in port, drooped the flags at half- 
mast. Every half hour from sunrise to sundown the 
cannons' boom echoed over the mourning city. The noble 
spirit was gone. His memory is dear to all." 

Semmes was the author of Afloat and Ashore, Campaign 
of General Scott in the Valley of Mexico, and Memoirs of 
Service Afloat — books delightfully interesting in style and 
full of valuable history. 




General Joseph Wheeler. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



GENERAL JOSEPH WHEELER. 



It was said just after the fall of Santiago that General 
Joseph Wheeler would be the popular choice by a large 
majority, if a Congressman-at-large had to be elected by 
vote throughout the States of the Union. This was a high 
compliment and one well deserved, for General Wheeler 
has had a career that involves the chivalry of the Ameri- 
can people. He was born in Augusta, Georgia, September 
10, 1836, and was graduated at nineteen years of age from 
the West Point Military Academy. He spent a year at 
the cavalry school for practice at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 
and was transferred therefrom to New Mexico as lieutenant 
of a cavalry company. 

125 



126 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

In April, 1861, he resigned his commission in the Fed- 
eral army, and cast his fortune with the Southern Con- 
federacy. He was the first colonel of the Nineteenth 
Alabama Regiment of Infantry, and was almost contin- 
uously engaged in battle from the beginning to the end 
of his brilliant service for the Confederate cause. 

At Shiloh, Pittsburg Landing, on the Tennessee River, 
in one of the bloodiest and most desperate battles of the 
war, he checked with a single brigade the right wing of 
the Federal army. After the fierce conflict of an hour he 
penetrated the enemy's lines, and cut off" and captured 
General Prentiss and twenty-two hundred of his men. 
When the Confederates retired from the disastrous fields 
around Shiloh and Corinth, he skilfully covered their 
retreat. 

He was everywhere the ideal soldier— quick, cool, brave, 
and determined. He won the praise due the gallant in 
war from every superior officer wdth whom he came into 
contact. 

He was transferred to the command of cavalry in the 
summer of 1862, and entered upon a career which blended 
the highest chivalry with the consummate judgment of 
the military leader. Many troops from other States added 
to the strength of his legions, but the majority of his men 
were Alabamians led by General William Wirt Allen, 
James Hagan, Moses Wright Hannon, John Herbert Kelly, 
and other brave officers of Alabama. 

General Wheeler possessed so much energy and skill, 
and was so active and watchful, that he rarely failed in 
any plan he formed. He foiled Buell at Mum ford ville, 
and enabled General Bragg to capture the town and four 
thousand Federal prisoners. He struck the rear of General 
Rosecrans at Murfreesboro, and led his troops over every 



GENERAL JOSEPH WHEELER. 127 

opposition, sweeping from his path infantry, cavalry, and 
artillery, and winning his major-general's stars. At 
Chickamauga, he hurled his command against the Federal 
right and centre with such effect that the blue-coats thought 
Longstreet's corps was upon them. 

After the battle of Chickamauga, General Wheeler 
attempted a feat that has hardly a parallel for daring and 
success. Rosecrans' depot of supplies was at Bridgeport, 
in Alabama, while his army was encamped at Chatta- 
nooga. One of the two routes that connected these places 
lay along the north bank of the Tennessee River and the 
other through the Sequatchee Valley. The one by the 
river bank was shortest, but it was cut out of the moun- 
tains that skirted the river, and could not be travelled by 
troops, because they would be subject to fire from the Con- 
federates. The country was guarded by the cavalry of 
Burnside to the east and that of Crook to the west. Burn- 
side with four thousand men was on the south, near 
Wheeler's place of crossing. Crook was on the north, and 
guarding the ford with three thousand eight hundred cav- 
alry and a battery of artillery. Wheeler, wdth less than 
four thousand men, attacked Burnside and drove him to 
Loudon. Then he marched back to the ford, and in the 
blaze of Crook's fire, crossed the river, routed Crook, and 
captured seven thousand mules and twelve hundred 
wagons full of ammunition and provisions. Pushing on 
to McMinnville he captured fifteen hundred prisoners, 
took possession of railroads and bridges, and destroyed 
the entire supplies of General Crittenden's corps. 

For ten days his cavalry remained north of the Ten- 
nessee and so crippled Rosecrans that he was unable to 
move his army from Chattanooga. Rosecrans' supplies 
were cut up, and his army put on starving rations. The 



128 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Federal cavalry tried hard to overtake General Wheeler, 
but Wheeler evaded, except when he wished battle. Two 
or three Federal generals would sometimes press him for 
battle, but he would hold them at bay until night con- 
cealed his movements, and then he would slip to an 
exposed point and damage it before help could reach it. 

Generals Grant and Kosecrans had quarrelled in Missis- 
sippi. Grant, by his own request, succeeded Rosecrans 
in command of the Federal forces at Chattanooga. His 
first telegram to General Thomas was to hold Chattanooga 
at all hazards. Thomas replied, " We shall hold until we 
starve to death." This telegram reveals the straits into 
which Wheeler had thrown the Federals by his vigorous 
raids upon their supply-trains and depots. 

General Wheeler recrossed the Tennessee and went to 
Missionary Ridge to aid General Bragg. The Confederate 
Conofress thanked him for his brilliant service. At Knox- 
ville he defeated the cavalry of Burnside, capturing bat- 
teries, trains, and prisoners. With General Pat Cleburne 
he checked Grant's advance from Chattanooga. 

In 1864, General Sherman advanced into Georgia with 
an army of nearly one hundred thousand men. General 
Joseph E. Johnston opposed him with barely half that 
number. Sherman's flank movements eff'ected the Fed- 
eral advance, and when Johnston was forced to retreat, 
Wheeler's cavalry brought up his rear with such skill as 
to preserve order and protect the supplies. 

General Sherman sent Generals Stoneman, McCook,and 
Garrard, in command of nearly nine thousand cavalry, to 
destroy the railroads about Newnan, Georgia. Wheeler, 
with Kelly and Humes, encountered them July 28th, 29th, 
and 30th, forcing severe battles, and capturing General 
Stoneman, General McCook, five brigade commanders, and 



GENERAL JOSEPH WHEELER. 129 

three thousand two hundred soldiers, with the horses, arms, 
equipments, artillery, and wagon-trains. 

A few hundred Federals, thoroughly demoralized, 
escaped to Sherman's main column. Colonel Brownlow 
was barefooted when he reached camp and reported to 
General Sherman, who was much chagrined and crippled 
by the loss of his cavalry. The Federals tried to make it 
appear that the Confederates had overwhelming forces of 
infantry and cavalry, but this is not true. The Confed- 
erate cavalry, largely of Alabamians, General Wheeler 
says, " was hardly one-third of the Federal forces ; and 
the number of prisoners captured exceeded the entire 
Confederate force." 

Sherman captured Atlanta, and marched on through 
Georgia and the Carolinas, but had to keep his men and 
trains close together. Wheeler was quick to discover and 
to attack any unprotected trains. Macon and Augusta 
were saved by his tact and presence. He received the 
thanks of South Carolina for the defence of Aiken. 

President Jefferson Davis, writing of Sherman's march, 
used this language : " It was in compact column and ad- 
vancing with extreme caution, although opposed only by 
detachments of Wheeler's cavalry and a few hastily formed 
regiments of raw militia; but no formidable opposition 
was made except at the railroad bridge over the Oconee, 
where Wheeler, with a portion of his command and a few 
militia, held the enemy in check for two or three days. 
With a small force General Wheeler daringly and per- 
sistently harassed, and, when practicable, delayed the 
enemy's advance, attacking and defeating exposed detach- 
ments, deterring his foragers from venturing for from the 
main body, defending cities and houses along the railroad 
lines, and affording protection to depots of supplies, arse- 



130 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

nals, and other important government works. The report 
of his operations, from November 1st to December 20th, 
displays a dash, activity, vigilance, and consummate skill 
which justly entitle him to a prominent place on the roll 
of great cavalry leaders. By his indomitable energies, 
operating on all sides of Sherman's columns, he was enabled 
to keep the government and commanders of our troops 
advised of the enemy's movements, and, by preventing 
foraging parties from leaving the main body, he saved 
from spoliation all but a narrow tract of country, and 
from the torch, millions' worth of property which would 
otherwise have certainly been consumed." 

Wheeler's Fifty-first Alabama Cavalry Regiment, in 
South Carolina, a week before the close of hostilities, cap- 
tured the First Alabama United States Regiment. 

At Averysboro' and Bentonville, Wheeler was in battle, 
driving back Sherman's right at Bentonville from John- 
ston's line of retreat. On the 29th of April, 1865, he 
addressed this farewell to his command: — 

" Gallant Comrades : You have fought your fight ; your 
task is done. During a four years' struggle for liberty 
you have exhibited courage, fortitude, and devotion. You 
are the sole victors of more than two hundred severely 
contested fields ; you have participated in more than a 
thousand conflicts of arms; you are heroes, veterans, 
patriots ; the bones of your comrades mark the battlefields 
upon the soil of Kentucky, Tennessee, A^irginia, North 
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Missis- 
sippi ; you have done all that human exertion could ac- 
complish. In bidding you adieu, I desire to thank you 
for your gallantry in battle, your fortitude under suff"er- 
ings, and devotion at all times to the holy cause you have 



GENERAL JOSEPH WHEELER. 131 

done so much to maintain. I desire to express my grati- 
tude for the kind feehng you have seen fit to show toward 
myself, and to evoke upon you the blessing of our Heav- 
enly Father, to whom we must always look for support in 
the hour of distress. 

" Brethren in the cause of freedom, comrades in arms, 
I bid you farewell. J. Wheeler." 

After the war, General Wheeler settled in Lawrence 
County, xilabama, and engaged in merchandising, farm- 
ing, and the practice of law. In 1882, he was elected to 
Congress and served continuously in that high office for 
eighteen years. President McKinley appointed him a 
major-general in the Spanish-American War, and at El 
Caney his zeal and genius for war saved the prestige and 
successes of the American arms and inspired the advance 
until Santiago fell. He saw brief service in the Philip- 
pines, and is now a retired major-general of the army of 
the United States of America. He is true to his friends, 
generous to every bod}^, and the very soul of popularity. 



CHAPTER XIX. 
MISS EMMA SANSOM. 

In the spring of 1863, the Army of the Cumberland, 
under General Rosecrans, lay in Chattanooga. General 
James A. Garfield, who afterward became President of the 
United States, was General Rosecrans' Chief of Staff. 

At Rock Run, in Cherokee County, was an iron furnace 
that supplied quantities of iron to the Confederate gov- 
ernment, and General Garfield felt sure it could be cap- 
tured and destroyed along with the line of railroad about 
Rome, Georgia. Colonel Abel D. Streight was commis- 
sioned to lead the raiding force of nearly twenty-four 
hundred picked cavalrymen. 

General Garfield was in high glee, counting upon noth- 
ing but successful execution of his plans. Colonel Streight 
moved down from Tennessee, crossed the river at Decatur, 
and passed down into Morgan County. 

General Forrest, " the Wizard of the Saddle," was at 
the time helping General Roddey to oppose General 
Dodge in Lawrence County. General Dodge retired 
from the beautiful valley of the Tennessee, but put the 
torch to its desolating work wherever he found aught 
that could be burned. 

General Forrest heard of Streight's advance through 
North Alabama, and began pursuit. In two days he over- 
took Streight. A terrific battle ensued, lasting for three 
hours, when the Federals were beaten and driven into 
Blount County, having lost fifty of their men and thirty 

132 



MISS EMMA SANSOM. 



133 



of their wagons. They scattered along the route of their 
retreat much booty and baggage. Streight made desperate 
efforts to rally his men, but Forrest pressed so closely they 
could not be checked. 

At Blountsville Streight discarded his wagons and 
packed his baggage on mules that he might move the 
faster. He fired his wagons, but Forrest came up in time 
to save much of the castaway stores. Then began a con- 
stant running fight, Streight trying his best to get away, 
and Forrest determined to capture him and his whole com- 
mand. The Rocky Ford of Warrior River was crossed, 
but several captured pack-mules and dead Federals evi- 
denced the proximity and dash of Forrest. 

The Confederates were tired and stopped to rest. While 
in camp two young girls, carrying three guns, leading 
three horses, and guarding three Federal prisoners, came 
up. A horse w^as given to each of the girls, and they both 
went home in delight with their 
steeds and the story of their 
soldier experience. 

At Black Creek, a mile or 
so west of Gadsden, Forrest 
found the bridge in flames and 
guarded by Federal sentinels. 
Streight had crossed. The creek 
was swollen. Mrs. Sansom, a 
widow living near, accompanied 
by her daughter. Miss Emma, a 
girl of sixteen summers, had 

gone toward the bridge to extinguish the flames. They 
discovered Federal pickets on guard, and were returning 
home when General Forrest accosted them and inquired 
about the crossings of the creek. Miss Emma offered to 




Miss Emma Sansom. 



134 



SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 



guide him to a ford. Her mother objected, but the brave 
girl insisted, and, climbing up on the corner of a fence, 
she vaulted behind Forrest, and rode with him to the 
ford. Shot and shell flew all about them, and the mother 
was very uneasy. 

General Forrest brought Miss Emma back all safe and 
sound. It is said that she didn't believe the Federals 




Noccalula Falls (sometimes called Black Creek Falls). 

would fire on her, as she was a girl, and so she got in front 
of Forrest and spread out her skirts to protect him. A 
volley of muskets sent a bullet through her skirts, when 
she exclaimed, " They have only wounded my dress," 
and waved her bonnet at the Federals. The brave fellows 
discovered her and sent her a round of cheers, ceased 
firing, and permitted her to get out of the reach of danger. 



^^SS EMMA SANSOM. 135 

Her heroic assistance enabled the Confederates to get 
across the creek promptly and continue the hot pursuit. 
On the night of May 3, 1863, Forrest overtook Streight at 
Turkeytown. Forrest had not more than five hundred 
men, but he boldly demanded an unconditional surrender, 
and by skilfully placing his troops and giving orders to 
imaginary forces, he outwitted and captured Streight with 
seventeen hundred men and sent them to Richmond over 
the very road they had come to destroy. When Streight 
learned of Forrest's actual strength he said, " I am sold." 

Streight's purpose to destroy all public works and to 
burn the city of Rome would have been accomplished had 
not Miss Emma piloted the Confederates to the ford, and 
thus, as General Forrest himself said, " facilitated pursuit 
by at least two hours." 

Miss Emma afterward married Mr. C. B. Johnson. She 
lived for many years in Calloway, Texas, and died there Au- 
gust 22, 1900, a widow and the mother of several children. 

The Legislature of Alabama, in 1863, voted her a gold 
medal and a section of land ; in 1899, by a vote almost 
unanimous, the Legislature again donated to her a sec- 
tion of land as a testimonial of appreciation of her heroic 
service ; but for lack of lands the State will probably give 
her the equivalent in some other form. 

John Trotwood Moore has vividly described the incidents 
of this chapter in his beautiful " Ballad of Emma Sansom." 
One verse says : 

" Do you wonder they rode like Eomans adown the winnowing 
wind, 
With Mars himself in the saddle and Minerva up behind? 
Was ever a foe confronted and captured by such means 
Since days of old and warrior bold and the maiden of Orleans?" 



CHAPTER XX. 
THE RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD. 

Unsettled conditions prevailed for several years after 
the war between the States. President Lincoln announced 
that the war would close, and the southern States would 
be restored promptly to their accustomed place in the 
Union as soon as the southern people quit fighting. 

Mr. Lincoln was assassinated by J. Wilkes Booth on 
the night of April 14, 1865, while witnessing the pro- 
duction of " The American Cousin," by Laura Keene and 
her Company. The whole country, South and North, bit- 
terly condemned the mad deed. The North was so horrified 
as to believe that leading southern men were accessories 
to the crime. President Andrew Johnson, who succeeded 
Lincoln, yielding to this false presumption, offered one 
hundred thousand dollars reward for the capture of Presi- 
dent Jefferson Davis, twenty-five thousand dollars each 
for the capture of C. C. Clay, Jacob Thompson, George N. 
Sanders, and Beverley Tucker, and ten thousand dollars 
for William C. Cleary, clerk of C. C. Clay. The arrests 
were made. The hundred thousand dollars offered for 
the arrest of Mr. Davis was paid to General James H. 
Wilson and command, who effected the capture of Mr. 
Davis at Irwinsville, Georgia, on May 10, 1865. 

President Johnson entertained Mr. Lincoln's kindly 
sentiments for the South, and tried to secure " support of 
State governments in all their rights," but denying to the 
State the " right to renounce its own place in the Union 

136 



THE RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD. 137 

or to nullify the laws of the Union." He advised that 
"all parties in the late terrible conflict must work to- 
gether in harmony." He endeavored to effect the full 
restoration of the South to its former place in the Union. 
He appointed Lewis E. Parsons provisional governor of 
Alabama, ordered a constitutional convention, and the 
election of senators and representatives to the Congress 
of the nation. The South accepted the judgment of 
arms, and yielded regretfully but sincerely to the ne- 
cessity of submission. It had no purpose, no dream of 
renewing the war. The oath of allegiance to the United 
States was taken. Peace and resumption of prosperity 
called forth the ambition of Southerners, and they nobly 
lent themselves to the resurrection of their down-trodden 
country. So complete and prompt was their assumption 
of new responsibilities that the North doubted their sin- 
cerity. It surpassed faith. 

The southern people have ever been chivalrous and 
just. When defeat came, they accepted it as the final 
settlement of the issues for which they had gone to war. 
Millions of dollars and thousands of lives were expended 
to refute the dreams of the Confederacy. It was a " Lost 
Cause." The Union triumphed. The South tried to leave 
the Union, but the northern declarations in office and 
press, in Congress and pulpit, in public and private, 
pronounced her rebellious, and denied the existence of 
the Confederacy. Representatives of southern States were 
in Washington December 4, 1865, to resume associations 
with their brethren of the North. 

Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, and Charles Sum- 
ner, of Massachusetts, riding on the whirlwind of popular 
passion, became leaders of the all-powerful Republican 
Party. They concocted opposition to the pacific measures 



138 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

of President Johnson, and at the opening of the Thirty- 
ninth Congress they planned the exclusion of southern 
members from seats in Congress. Mr. Brooks of New 
York anticipated their ruse, and spoke earnestly and 
eloquently against action " condemnatory of the forth- 
coming message of the President," but all was in vain. 
The rules were repeatedly suspended by overwhelming 
partisan majorities. 

Mr. Colfax, " rejoicing that from shore to shore in our 
land there is peace," was elected speaker. Thaddeus 
Stevens was in his element. Henceforth he led. His 
first move secured appointment of a committee of fif- 
teen, which became so celebrated in the dark days of 
reconstruction that it is known as "The Reconstruction 
Committee." The resolution creating the committee reads, 
" Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives 
in Congress assembled. That a joint committee of fifteen 
members shall be appointed, nine of whom shall be mem- 
bers of the House and six members of the Senate, who 
shall inquire into the condition of the States which formed 
the so-called Confederate States of America, and report 
whether they or any of them are entitled to be represented 
in either House of Congress, with leave to report at any 
time by bill or otherwise; and until such report shall 
have been made and finally acted on by Congress, no 
member shall be received into either House from any of 
the so-called Confederate States ; and all papers relating 
to the representation of the said States shall be referred 
to the said committee without debate." 

This was to the South "the handwriting on the wall." 
During the day of its passage a telegram from Governor 
Parsons attested Alabama's adoption of the " Thirteenth 
Amendment," thereby accepting the death of slavery. 



THE RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD. 139 

The doctrine of Thaddeus Stevens asserted that "those 
who by seceding had defied the Constitution could not 
invoke its protection." Sumner went further and declared 
the South to have committed suicide, and that its soil 
was subject to the supreme control of Congress. 

Personal causes are thought to have fed the animosities 
of these two men. Sumner, in 1856, in a speech before 
the Senate, had attacked the integrity of Senator Butler 
of South Carolina. Preston Smith Brooks, a nephew of 
Senator Butler and a representative of South Carolina, 
two days afterward found Sumner alone in the Senate 
chamber and gave him a caning. A negro woman is 
supposed to have influenced Stevens. 

The combination against the President was formidable 
and persistent. It disregarded his vetoes, passing bill 
after bill by the legal two-thirds majority, and finally 
secured a bill of impeachment against the President. 
The impeachment proceedings failed for lack of one 
vote. 

Military rule was thrust upon the South. Georgia, 
Florida, and Alabama constituted a military district 
under General Pope. General Wager Swayne had charge 
of Alabama. 

The Republicans, for the protection of negroes, estab- 
lished the Freedmen's Bureau. This bureau for years 
constituted the real governing body of the South. Its 
agents were "scalawags" and northern "carpet-baggers," 
who knew little and cared less about the negroes. The 
"spoils" brought them into office. Love of country and 
its institutions formed no chains of honorable attachment. 

They came poor ; many returned to the North rich when 
politics changed and their occupation ceased. Thou- 
sands upon thousands of the millions of dollars appro- 



140 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

priated by Congress for benevolent purposes never reached 
the negroes or the suffering whites intended, but enriched 
unscrupulous agents. 

All conceivable laws that could humiliate or crush the 
whites were enacted. The amalgamation of races, mixed 
schools, and social equality were sanctioned by law, not 
because the powers in authority believed the law morally 
right, but because of a vindictive spirit to domineer over 
the South, and insult the former masters of slaves. No 
law could be trusted, because it was broken and buried 
whenever it thwarted the cupidity or meanness of radical 
emissaries and a radical Congress. 

In 1867, General Pope ordered the registration of voters 
preparatory to election of delegates to a constitutional 
convention. Three Republicans were appointed to super- 
intend and report. Ratification of the new Constitution 
was, by law, made subject to the favorable majority of all 
registered voters. A great many registered and did not 
vote, so that the returns lacked several thousand votes 
to make the Constitution a legal instrument. General 
Meade reported, " the Constitution fails of ratification by 
eight thousand one hundred and fourteen votes." When 
Congress met it formed a law to fit the case, and declared 
the Constitution ratified. 

This action involved an ex-post facto law, which is law 
made after a thing has happened, in order to cover the con- 
ditions of that special case. It is so unfair that civilized 
nations disclaim it. It was unjust to both whites and 
blacks. It opened the gates of fraud and oppression, of 
robbery and racial hatred. The ballot fell to the negroes. 
Aliens and enemies occupied official positions, while the 
real friends of the country were denied participation in 
government. The State literally passed into the hands 



THE RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD. 141 

of adventurers, schemers, and imbeciles. It was but 
natural that negroes should believe and follow their new 
friends. They had been slaves ; the war made them free. 
They were beset by "scalawags" and "carpet-baggers," 
and frightened and cajoled into political opposition to 
their former masters. They w^ere told that the Repub- 
licans were their only friends and that they only would 
keep them free and give them land and money. 

The Loyal League and Freedmen's Bureau controlled 
not only the negro votes, but their labor. So completely 
organized and so generally powerful were these instru- 
ments of authority that white men had to consult and 
fee the agents of these bodies to obtain laborers on their 
plantations. The agents themselves bought lands and 
induced negroes to remove to them, using Congressional 
appropriations to pay the expenses of removal. 

So flagrant and foul became abuses, that General Grant 
himself made a tour of investigation, and reported the 
corruption and inefficiency of the bureaus. His report 
checked, but did not stop legislation against the South. 
Power in control was used to perpetuate power. The 
continued supremacy of the Republican Party assured 
agents of office and profits. Its downfall would take away 
plunder and profits, and therefore its emissaries up- 
held it. 

William H. Smith, of Randolph, the "Reconstruction 
Governor of Alabama," succeeded Governor Robert M. 
Patton in July, 1868. He convened the General Assem- 
bly immediately upon his entrance into office. The 
Assembly was composed, for the most part, of incapable 
and untrustworthy white men and negroes, who had no 
bonds of fellowship with the intelligence and integrity of 
the State. It was beset by unscrupulous railroad manipu- 



142 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

lators ; it yielded to bribes and to party lash and gave 
loose rein to reckless legislation, ran the State into debt 
that reached beyond $30,000,000, impaired its credit, crip- 
pled its business, and pressed it toward the rock of finan- 
cial repudiation. 

Governor Smith refused to surrender the office in 1870 
to his successor-elect, Robert B. Lindsay, claiming that 
frauds were practiced in the election. He secured from 
Chancellor Eeuben Saffold an injunction directed to R. N. 
Barr, of Ohio, president of the Senate, restraining the 
count of vote for Governor and State Treasurer, but per- 
mitting the count for other officers. Dr. Edward H. 
Moren, of Bibb, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant- 
governor, was declared elected. He promptly entered 
the hall of representatives where the two houses were in 
joint convention, took the oath of office as the Republican 
Senate withdrew, ordered C. A. Miller, the Secretary of 
State, to produce the returns for Governor and State 
Treasurer, counted them, and declared Robert B. Lindsay 
duly elected. Mr. Lindsay was at once installed into the 
executive office. For two weeks Alabama had apparently 
two governors. Mr. Lindsay was sustained by a Demo- 
cratic House of Representatives and by the people, and 
Mr. Smith was supported by a Republican Senate and 
Federal soldiers. Intense excitement resulted until a 
writ from the Circuit Court removed Mr. Smith and 
confirmed the authority of Governor Lindsay. 

Governor Lindsay went into office warmly supported 
by the white people, but his prejudices against leading 
Democrats and his strong friendship for leading Repub- 
licans, produced alienation of confidence, and made him 
a disappointment to the party that elected him. He was 
succeeded by David P. Lewis of Madison in 1872. 



THE RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD. 143 

Governor Lewis was a native of ^^irginia, but grew 
to manhood in Alabama. Though favored with high 
honors, both by popular vote and by official appointment, 
his sentiments for the Union were so strong as to carry 
him through the Federal lines to Nashville, where he 
spent the closing year of the war. His administration was 
marked by recognizing the "Court House Legislature" 
of the Republicans and ignoring the lawful Democratic 
Legislature in the Capitol, and by the order of President 
Grant, which sent Federal soldiers to turn out of office 
the Democrats and install the "Court House" body. 
Governor Lewis was so much ashamed of the acts of the 
"Court House Legislature," passed before President Grant 
put it into the Capitol, that they have never been pub- 
lished. One of these acts was to double the taxes upon 
the people. Lewis refused to appoint " carpet-baggers " 
to office, and turned the back of his hand to them when- 
ever he could do so. 

The better elements of the North were obtaining a 
voice in the government. Many soldiers of the stand- 
ing army repudiated the course of affairs. These were 
gentlemen who appreciated the sentiments of a noble 
but overpowered people. Northern gentlemen began 
to make their homes in the State, and united with the 
educated and intelligent classes to overthrow misrule 
and anarchy. They knew that fraudulent practices of 
political and social renegades could not dignify and de- 
velop a country nor remove barriers to negro advance- 
ment. They united with Democrats in working for the 
downfall of "scalawagism." and for the re-establishment 
of good, honest government. They knew confidence to be 
impossible between the native citizens and selfish immi- 
grants, whose presence invited suspicion, whose conduct 



144 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

defied regard, and whose command over the negro made 
him the tool of lawless power. 

An exciting political campaign in 1874 closed the ad- 
ministration of Governor Lewis with his political defeat 
by George S. Houston of Limestone County. With his 
defeat passed Republican dominancy from Alabama, and 
the demoralizing conditions of the reconstruction meas- 
ures. 



CHAPTER XXI. 
THE NEGROES. 

The ten millions of negroes in the United States present 
a problem that calls for the highest statesmanship. At 
the dawn of the nineteenth century ships from Africa 
were unloading savage negroes upon American shores to 
be sold into slavery, to be schooled and tutored in the 
arts of peace ; for whatever may have been the evils of 
slavery, contact with Caucasian masters and their families 
has been the most civilizing and uplifting influence that 
ever came to the negroes in their long march through the 
stagnant dark of the ages. Booker Washington has said : 
" We went into slavery pagans, we came out Christians ; 
we went into slavery a piece of property, we came out 
American citizens ; we went into slavery without a lan- 
guage, we came out speaking the proud Anglo-Saxon 
tongue." 

The changed condition of master and slave at the close 
of the war was, in the main, gracefully accepted by both 
races. The tender ties that bound them were too strong 
to be severed by human decrees. The old plantation life 
left its sweet memories in the hearts of both whites and 
blacks — memories so deeply engraved that the misguided 
efforts of politicians, pulpits, magazines, and newspapers 
have failed to eradicate them. The affections of the older 
generation will hold until death, and the younger genera- 
tion will not wholly forget the record and courtesies of the 
olden time. 

10 145 



146 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Business and humanity combined to make masters 
kind to their negroes and regardful of their welfare. The 
conduct of the negroes during the war between the States 
proves their love and devotion to the whites ; a love too 
strong to have grown out of bad treatment. The old 
slaves protected and supported the white w^omen and 
cliildren while the men were away in the armies. There 
was no fear of insurrection. Masters trusted the negroes 
and the negroes proved equal to the trust. 

The unpleasant relations existing between the North 
and the South immediately after the war, were intensified 
by the unwise policy of the United States, in the mad 
determination to invest the negro with all the respon- 
sibilities of citizenship, before he had adjusted himself to 
the new order of things. A distinguished Georgian said of 
the enfranchisement of the negro : " It took the Almighty 
forty years to train the Israelites for citizenship after their 
Egyptian bondage, but the United States Congress had, 
by passing the Fourteenth Amendment, assumed to con- 
vert, in an instant, millions of ignorant negroes into citi- 
zens of this republic." 

In his blindness and ecstasy the negro became the tool 
of vampires who abused the good that the best Repub- 
licans of the North intended to confer. He yielded to the 
temptations of politics, and expected the general govern- 
ment to supply his wants, to give him " forty acres of land 
and a mule." Idleness, vagrancy, crime, insults, injury, 
and threats followed in the wake of such conditions. 

Because of these conditions the Ku Klux Klan devel- 
oped into regulators, and assumed the duties of a vigilance 
committee. The Ku Klux Klan had no political object in 
its origin. In 1867, some young men of Pulaski, Tennes- 
see, formed a club for pleasurable diversion, and named 



THE ^'EGROES. 147 

it the Ku Klux Klan. The mysterious name and the 
mysterious rites of initiation provoked amusing curiosity 
among intelligent citizens, and awed into fearful wonder- 
ment the ignorant and superstitious blacks. 

Visitors were initiated into membership, and the Klan 
spread over the whole southern States. Its highest officer, 
the Grand Wizard, held absolute control over the invisi- 
ble empire of the Klan. Its couriers were called Night- 
hawks, and many a negro's heart stood still as a Night- 
hawk was seen on galloping steed bearing the swift mes- 
sages of the mysterious order. 

The Klan purposed good to all classes, and gave protec- 
tion to rights at a time when no other power would stay 
the evils. Wrongs followed, of course, and good people 
rejoiced when the Grand Wizard dissolved the Klan in 
1869, but they accorded many virtues to the Ku Klux 
Klan — the '' Konfounded Krooked Konundrum." 

The South was strictly an agricultural region. Negro 
labor seemed indispensable to the raising of crops ; and 
cabins that had sheltered slaves were, perforce, the " homes 
of the free." Various methods were adopted to induce 
the negroes to till the fields. Lands were rented to some 
negroes; wages in cash and a stipulated portion of the 
crops were given to others. The white masters and former 
slaves were thus thrown into daily contact, and, despite 
the interference of politicians, there was generallv un- 
broken concord. Now and then some negro of bold and 
desperate spirit would kill or get killed, but the prevalent 
good feeling usually restrained the fiercer elements. One 
of the most violent clashes occurred in Choctaw County. 

Jack Turner, valet of Mr. B. L. Turner, was possessed of 
great magnetism and intelligence, and became a leader 
among the negroes. Politicians discovered his power, cor- 



148 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

rupted him, and fed the fires of his naturally brave and 
dauntless nature. He became defiant and aggressive, a 
"walking menace to the community." Many indictments 
brought him before the courts, and convictions followed 
in at least two-thirds of his cases. During the political 
canvass of 1874, the whites scattered Jack's armed asso- 
ciates in march to Butler, the county-seat, and forced him 
to fly for refuge into Wahalak Swamp. On August 15, 
1882, papers were found near DeSotoville embodying 
minutes of negro meetings at which Jack presided, and 
disclosing a plot to massacre all white men, women, and 
children. Democratic and Ku Klux negroes. Besides 
Jack, the papers named six others as leaders in the 
bloody plot. These were all arrested. 

The county was aflame. The enormity of the plot was 
appalling. A thousand men, irrespective of color, gath- 
ered at Butler in a mass-meeting, of which Captain A. J. 
Gray was elected chairman. The fiery speeches of Dr. 
Evan P. Harris and others were answered by the County 
Solicitor, George W. Taylor, and by Captain Joseph H. 
Knighton, who pleaded earnestly for the majesty of the 
law and the legal trial of the accused. The majority 
vote doomed Jack to be hanged. Prominent citizens 
were detailed to bring him from the jail and to hang 
him. This they did about 1 o'clock in the afternoon, 
hanging him to the limb of a large oak tree in front 
of the court-house, in the most public portion of the 
village. 

There sprang up a doubt regarding the genuineness of 
the papers, and the other leaders were finally dismissed 
from jail without trial. 

Very seldom does anything occur in Alabama to mar 
the harmony of the races. Not one white man and one 



THE NEGROES. 149 

negro in ten thousand ever clash. Day by day the two 
attend to business in common, and move in perfect friend- 
ship. This peaceful relation gives prominence to the few 
instances of violence that enemies hold up as the general 
rule. In no other State has there been more wisdom and 
far-sightedness among the leaders. 

Booker T. Washington, the President of Tuskegee 
Normal and Industrial Institute, is one of the greatest 
negroes on the American Continent. By his genius and 
energy he has built up at Tuskegee, in the heart of the 
Black Belt of Alabama, a school for negroes that stands a 
monument to the capabilities of the negro. There he is 
instructing thousands of young negroes of both sexes in 
the essentials of a literary education, and is training them 
to be independent and happy through industrial skill. 

W. H. Council, the President of the Alabama Normal 
and Industrial Institute at Normal, ranks next to Booker 
Washington in dignity of character and counsels. Other 
great negro leaders could be mentioned, for Montgomery, 
Selma, Mobile, and other cities have commendable negro 
schools under able and worthy supervisors. Booker Wash- 
ington, however, rises to national prominence. In all the 
troubles that have beset the negro, he has stood above the 
passions of the hour, and counselled peace and patience, 
believing that justice and right and time will effect a 
wholesome cure to all wrongs. He is an author and an 
orator, and is impressing his ideas upon this age. 

Nearly a hundred million dollars have been expended 
for the education of the negro since his freedom, and the 
white people of the South have contributed eighty-five 
millions of this amount. The magnanimity that led the 
ex-Confederates to this munificent charity, makes of them 
the best friends the negroes have in the world, and makes 



150 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

the South the best home yet known for the ex-slaves and 
their descendants. 

The South grants the negro opportunities for business 
to be found in no other section of the Union. It opens to 
him its fields, its factories, its mines, its trades, its thou- 
sand industries, and invites and urges him to honest labor 
for an honest Hving. 

In the North the negro finds himself condemned by the 
white laboring classes and excluded from the great labor 
unions. He discovers that efforts to settle in the North 
are thwarted by competition he cannot meet, by preju- 
dices he cannot subdue, by indifference he cannot com- 
prehend, and by opposition that forbids his enjoyment 
of the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution. 

Though occasional troubles in the South disturb him, 
he has learned to value his home in Dixie. Here are to 
be found the highest types of his race. That he should 
strive to win power and prestige is natural and commend- 
able, but his thirty years of freedom have not satisfied his 
ambition for advancement in politics and the professions. 
He feels embarrassed in the presence of the whites, and 
wishes a field where, apart from mixed or different races, 
he may work out his destiny according to the genius and 
talents of his own people. Some of the great leaders are 
agitating the possibility of a Congressional grant of one 
hundred million dollars to transport the race back to 
Africa. But this is not at all probable. Both whites and 
blacks love the ways of peace and good feeling, and are 
ever ready to minister the one to the other. Law and 
liberty inspire the growth of kindly sympathies, and here 
in the South, under separate and distinct development, 
must be solved the " Problem of the Races." 



CHAPTER XXII. 
THE HISTORY OF ALABAMA SCHOOLS. 

The convention which framed the first Constitution of 
Alabama, embodied in its organic law the establishment 
and encouragement of schools. The old newspapers show 
the interest and care of the early settlers for the moral 
and intellectual welfare of the children. A typical an- 
nouncement of February 26, 1820, reads: 

" Cahawba Academy. — A teacher well qualified to pre- 
pare students for admission into the Junior Class of 
College, and whose moral character is unimpeachable, 
will meet with liberal encouragement. A clergyman 
would be preferred. Letters addressed to Dr. W. Roberts, 
Dr. C. Humphries, or Dr. T. Casey will be attended to." 

Humorous advertisements now and then appeared. One 
gives the design of "teaching the English, Latin, and 
Greek languages grammatically." 

Another proposes "teaching such scholars as may be 
entrusted to his care, upon a plan discovered by John 
Lancaster of England." 

Perhaps the most ludicrous advertisement ever made 
of a school in Alabama occurred in a Tuskaloosa news- 
paper. It announced the opening of John " Price's 
Thrashing Machine to correct the devil's unaccount- 
ables." 

The first English school established in Alabama limits 
was opened at the Boat Yard, on the Tensaw River, by 

151 



152 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

John Pierce of New England. Washington Academy 
(1811), at St. Stephens, and Green Academy (1812), at 
Huntsville, shared the two thousand dollars appropriated 
for education by the Mississippi Territory. St. Stephens 
Academy (1818) attained an enviable reputation under 
the tuition of Rev. J. L. Sloss. Of these schools, Green 
Academy survived the longest. Its buildings were burned 
by United States troops during the war between the States, 
and it has since been merged into the public-school system 
of the city. 

Public education was attempted in Mobile as early as 
1826. Ten years later the State Legislature authorized 
Mobile "to raise by lottery any sum, not exceeding fifty 
thousand dollars, to complete the building known as 
Barton Academy, then in process of construction." In 
1852, the public-school system was thoroughly inaugu- 
rated in Barton Academy, and was so commended that it 
became the foundation of that adopted by the State of 
Alabama. A. B. Meek, representative from Mobile, know- 
ing from personal observation the practical results of the 
system, introduced into the Legislature a bill providing for 
the establishment of public schools throughout the State. 
The bill passed both Houses, and was approved by Gov- 
ernor John Anthony Winston, February 15, 1854. W. F. 
Perry, afterward a Confederate general, was the first Su- 
perintendent of Education of Alabama. 

Willis G. Clark of Mobile gave 3^ears of effort to the 
upbuilding of Barton Academy, and lived to see it con- 
tribute nearly half a century of development and culture 
to the children of Mobile. Llis long life was continuously 
devoted to the school interests of Alabama, and especially 
to the University, of which he was a trustee for twenty- 
five years. 



THE HISTORY OF ALABAMA SCHOOLS. 



153 



The poverty and desolation following the war permitted 
comparatively few first-class private schools. The great 
masses could hope for education only through public 
schools. Lack of public money made these of short terms. 
The poor salaries commanded inefficient teaching talent. 
Inefficient teachers gave inefficient instruction, and so the 
public schools suffered both in character and usefulness. 
In the efforts to secure qualified teachers was discovered 




Alabama Polytechnic Institute. 

the need of normal schools, and the State, in the kindli- 
ness of her mother heart, established these at Florence, 
Jacksonville, Livingston, and Troy, adopting courses ad- 
mitting classes of all grades and granting diplomas to 
students taking special normal training. The State has 
also established an agricultural school in each of the 
nine congressional districts. 

The public schools have done vast good to the State, 
and public sentiment is pressing the General Assembly 



154 



SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 




Dr. 'William Leroy Bxoun. 



to munificent appropriations for their maintenance. Pop- 
ulation and wealth are increasing. New industries and 

new enterprises are calling for 
quickened intelligence and 
technical training. The Poly- 
technic Institute at Auburn, 
established in 1872, has attained 
a proud eminence among the 
technical colleges of the nation. 
Under the presidency of the 
scholarly educator, Dr. William 
Leroy Broun, with an able and 
devoted faculty, it is sending 
forth experts to develop and 
sustain the industries of the 
country. Its graduates have held high positions in the 
engineering fields of Mexico and Africa, and in all the 
pursuits of business within the United States. Depart- 
ments of literature, science, agriculture, and military 
training make it an institution of high merit. 

The Medical College at Mobile began its work in 1859. 
Dr. Josiah C. Nott, encouraged and assisted by other 
earnest and aggressive scientists and physicians, projected 
it. The college began well, but the war came on two years 
after its organization, and its professors and students left 
for service in the Confederate army. Its doors were closed. 
After the war the Federal authorities converted it into a 
primary school for negroes, and so used it until 1868, 
regardless of the efforts of the faculty to have it restored 
to its original purpose. It was wantonly abused by the 
ignorant negroes, who handled at pleasure and with utter 
recklessness the fine instruments and apparatus that had 



THE HISTORY OF ALABAMA SCHOOLS. 155 

been carefully gathered by the faculty. It is now a com- 
ponent part of the University. 

The University of Alabama has had a checkered his- 
tory. Its first session began April 18, 1831 ; its first presi- 
dent was Dr. Alva Woods, an eminent Baptist clergyman 
of Rhode Island. The United States Government had 
donated two townships of land for its support. These 
lands weve sold at high prices, and the payments, which 
would have created a profitable endowment fund, were 
thrown into the State Bank and frittered away in the 
speculations of politics. Out of the University claims 
against the State there has been set aside the endowment 
of $300,000, upon which Alabama pays annually to the 
University $24,000 in interest. 

The University did not thrive under Dr. Woods, who, 
though a most learned scholar and cultured gentleman, 
failed to hold in check the disorder and insubordination 
of matriculates reared in this _ 

borderland of civilization. He '^ 

founded systems of education 
that required the highest wis- 
dom. By his eff'orts was char- 
tered, in 1836, the first female 
seminary of high order within 
the bounds of Alabama. It 
was then the Alabama Athe- 
nseum ; it is now the Tuska- 
loosa Female College. 

Rev. Basil Manly succeeded j^^ -^ ^^^ Manly, sr. 

Dr. Woods in office. His elec- 
tion ushered in a new life and a warmer sympathy. His 
administration witnessed student riots and insubordina- 
tion, but he caused the suspension and expulsion of so 




166 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

many students that he was conceded to be master of the 
situation. He hfted the standard of scholarship and 
made the University respected everywhere for its strong 
curriculum and able faculty. Dr. Manly lived for thir- 
teen years after failing health closed his services with 
the University, dying in Greenville, South Carolina, in 
1869. 

The war period found Dr. Landon C. Garland at the 
head of the University. He was elected president in 1855. 
The military department was established in 1860, and the 
president and all other officers of the department were con- 
stituted a part of the military of the State. Colonel Caleb 
Huse, of the United States army, was the first commandant 
of cadets. He was succeeded by Colonel James T. Murfee. 
On April 4, 1865, General Croxton with Federal cavalry 
burnt the University. The four hundred cadets had met 
and fought him, advancing up the hill into Tuskaloosa on 
tlie previous night, but learning that fourteen hundred 
Federals were in the command, Dr. Garland and Colonel 
Murfee, after destroying large quantities of ammunition 
at the University, marched the cadets toward Marion. 

The General Assembly following the surrender loaned 
the University seventy thousand dollars to rebuild. The 
Board of Trustees was composed of Porter King, Francis 
Bugbee, William S. Mudd, James H. Fitts, Robert Jemison, 
Benjamin F. Peters, A. M. Gibson, Z. F. Freeman, Willis G. 
Clark, John T. Foster, Alfred N. Worthy, John C. Meadors, 
George S. Walden, Walter H. Crenshaw, and the ex-officio 
members. Governor Robert M. Patton, Chief Justice Abram 
J. Walker, Associate-Justices William M. Byrd and Thomas 
J. Judge, and Dr. Landon C. Garland, the president of the 
University. 

Colonel James T. Murfee offered acceptable plans for 



THE HISTORY OF ALABAMA SCHOOLS. 157 

the proposed new building, and was appointed architect 
and superintendent. George M. Figh and Dr. William S. 
Wyman were awarded the contract for rebuilding. Alva 
Woods Hall, at a cost of ninety thousand dollars, was 
thus erected ; Governor Robert M. Patton having pledged 
his personal credit and the credit of the State to protect 
contractors and creditors, and Major James H. Fitts having 
used all the resources of his bank to keep at par the 
"Patton Certificates," by which the work of rebuilding 
was carried forward. 

By the new State Constitution the Trustees were sup- 
planted by a Board of Regents. Several prominent men 
refused the presidency, for public sentiment condemned 
the " reconstruction " policies, and deferred to later years 
the work of rehabilitation. Judge William R. Smith, a 
gentleman of wide reputation, and possessed of many traits 
of popularity, a broad scholar, and the personal friend 
of many representative men of the State and of the Union, 
a member of the class of 1831, and therefore identified 
with the University from its first opening, was elected 
president, and strove vainly to restore it to favor. These 
were dark days for the University and for the State, but, 
under Dr. N. T. Lupton, confidence and patronage began 
to return. Dr. William S. Wyman, Dr. William A. Parker, 
Dr. Benjamin F. Meek, and Dr. Eugene A. Smith were of 
the faculty with Dr. Lupton. 

Dr. Carlos G. Smith, 1874-78, put the impression of his 
high scholarship upon the University. He was succeeded 
in office by General Josiah Gorgas, 1878-79; Colonel 
Burwell B. Lewis, 1879-85; General Henry D. Clayton, 
1885-89, and General Richard C. Jones, 1890-97. These 
were all gentlemen of the old school, zealous, broad- 
minded, able, the ideal leaders of youth, and in every 



158 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

sense worthy of great trusts. Under them vast improve- 
ments were made in the material equipment of the Uni- 
versity. 

The United States Congress in 1884 donated forty-six 
thousand and eighty acres of land as payment for the 
fiery ruin wrought by Federal troops in 1865. A large 
portion of these lands was sold and the proceeds used 
for building Manly Hall, Clark Hall, Garland Hall, the 




University of Alabama. 

chemical and physical laboratories, professors' homes, and 
other improvements. Despite this material enlargement, 
the public confidence waned. The evil genius of politics 
injected a baneful influence. Nineteen years had passed 
since a professional teacher had occupied the president's 
chair. Public opinion condemned the election of presi- 
dents by virtue of civil or military distinction. 

Dr. James K. Powers, 1897-1901, was elected president 
because of his success at the head of the Alabama Normal 



THE HISTORY OF ALABAMA SCHOOLS. 159 

College in Florence. In his efforts to create and foster 
university ideals he brought to his assistance graduates 
of Johns Hopkins, Princeton, and universities of the Old 
World. A lack of sympathy marked his administration, 
and the rebellion of the student body induced his resigna- 
tion. He was succeeded by Dr. AVilliam Stokes AVyman. 

Crippled in its infancy through the mismanagement of 
its funds by its agents and the State Bank, embarrassed 
always through lack of adequate endowment, the Uni- 
versity has, nevertheless, made a deep impression upon 
the history of the State. Post-graduate students from its 
halls in the great universities of this continent and the 
Old World have ranked among the first in intellectual 
fitness and habits of investigation. 

Her lawyers, at home and abroad, stand at the head of 
the bar, and have given proud service in the highest 
offices of States. Her ministers of the gospel have trod 
every path of preferment in the gift of the church. Dr. 
F. A. P. Barnard, who was for many years president of 
Columbia College, New York, won his proudest, though 
initial honors, in the laboratories of the University of 
Alabama. Professor Tuomey and Professor Brumby 
quickened the geologic and industrial pulse of the times. 
A. B. Meek poured his heart's blood into journals and 
speeches inviting to a lofty appreciation of literature and 
virtuous living. Dr. Eugene A. Smith has been a constant 
contributor to scientific and industrial impulses, and has 
made his name a part of the heritage of the scientific w^orld. 
Samuel ^linturn Peck has thrilled the English-speaking 
world by his delightful lyrics. A host of other literary 
lights from the halls of the University have blessed 
mankind by the glow of their genius upon the printed 
page. 



160 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Denominational schools and colleges have contributed 
largely to the moral, intellectual, and spiritual culture of 
the people. The Catholics founded St. Joseph's College 
in 1830 ; the Baptists founded Howard College, 1833-41, 
and the Judson Institute in 1839, placing both schools in 
Marion, but removing Howard College to East Lake in 
1887 ; in 1856 the Methodists founded the Southern Uni- 
versity at Greensboro, and the Alabama Conference 
Female College at Tuskegee; they also control Athens 
Female College, Tuskaloosa Female College, and the 
North Alabama Conference College at Owenton, near Bir- 
mingham. The Alabama Central College, in the splendid 
old State-House at Tuskaloosa, is under Baptist govern- 
ment. These institutions have not only dispensed the 
light of literature, and trained young minds to analyze 
and to weigh, but they have fostered an exalted faith, and 
have built up characters strong in virtue, hope, love, 
truth, justice, and patriotism. 

Prof. Henry Tutwiler was born November 16, 1807, in 
Harrisonburg, Virginia. He was among the first students 
enrolled in the University of Virginia, and was graduated 
there a Master of Arts. R. M. T. Hunter, Robert Toombs, 
Gessner Harrison, Edgar Allan Poe, Alexander H. H. 
Stuart, and others known to fame were his fellow- 
students. Thomas Jefferson often had him as a welcome 
guest at Monticello ; George Long, the English educator 
and historian, John P. Emmet, a nephew^ of the Irish 
patriot, and other masters in the University chairs, were 
his friends. 

He accepted the chair of Ancient Languages in the 
University of Alabama upon its opening in 1831, and 
thenceforth lent himself to the education of the young 
men of Alabama. He resigned the chair in the Univer- 




THE HISTORY OF ALABAMA SCHOOLS. 161 

sity in 1837, and taught mathematics in Marion College, 
1837-40, and in LaGrange College, 1840-47. 

In 1847 he organized Greene Springs School, the most 
noted and influential private school 
in the State. He was said to be a 
whole faculty in himself. He was as 
much at home in the scientific labora- 
tories as he was in the department of 
classic literature. He kept abreast 
with the progress of the world both ; 
in science and literature. SeveraU 
times he refused the presidency of 
the University of Alabama, prefer- 
ring to give his labors to the inde- Prof. Henry Tutwiler. 

pendent work of his own school, than 

which no college in the South furnished more delightful 

or more inspiring courses of study. 

A distinguished educator and divine said of him, " He 
was a profound and rich linguist, a thorough mathema- 
tician, and a superior chemist. He was learned without 
pedantry, pious without bigotry, a gentleman without a 
blemish, a character without a flaw." Simple in habits 
and nature, he was too great to be ambitious. Never but 
once did he consent to lend his name for nomination to a 
State ofiice. This was for State Superintendent of Educa- 
tion in 1878. He was shocked and astonished when he 
learned that to win he would have to canvass the State. 
He thought the office of Superintendent of Education 
ought to be above politics. He would not canvass. The 
political dictum robbed the State of his services. 

On May 12, 1866, he discovered the new star, Coronse 
Borealis, and reported his discovery to Professor Joseph 
Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, to Professor 
11 



162 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Stephen Alexander, of Princeton, and to other gentlemen 
connected with scientific institutions, but as the star was 
discovered on the same night by another American, a 
Northerner, and by two Europeans, the records never 
gave Dr. Tutwiler due recognition. 

Great as was his learning. Dr. Tutwiler was yet greater 
in character, and through it has left the deeper impres- 
sions upon the age. No tribute of tongue or pen can 
compass his magnanimity or measure the sweep of his 
imperishable influence. He died September 22, 1884. 

His spirit lives in his family. His daughter. Miss Julia 
Strudwick Tutwiler, Principal of the Alabama Normal 
College for Girls, at Livingston, has 
done more than any one else for the 
education of the girls of Alabama. 
• She has grappled with Legislatures 
for an equitable distribution of pub- 
lic funds for the benefit of boys and 
^J girls alike. She has effected the es- 
f tablishment of " The Girls' Indus- 
/ trial School " at Montevallo ; opened 
^-^___ _-~--~ the doors of the University for the 
Miss Julia s. Tutwiler. admission of womeii ; and given 
to scores of girls the opportunities 
of education in the college over which she presides. 

Bishop Robert Paine, in LaGrange College ; ^Irs. Staf- 
ford and her learned husband, giving to young woman- 
hood all that is noble and attractive in cultured instruc- 
tion, and making the Alabama Female Institute of 
Tuskaloosa a real seminary of learning; Colonel James 
T. Murfee, for many years the able president of Howard 
College, and now the successful Principal of Marion Mili- 
tary Institute ; Dr. John Massey, spending a few years of 




THE HISTORY OF ALABAMA SCHOOLS. 163 

his young manhood in giving college preparatory instruc- 
tion, and then entering upon the presidency of Alabama 
Conference Female College at Tuskegee; Dr. Thomas J. 
Dill, who lifted the standard of preparatory college work, 
and then gave his services to Howard College, filling with 
signal ability the chair of Ancient Languages, and lend- 
ing his ripe experience and scholarly attainments to the 
college in its new home in the palpitating bosom of 
industrial Alabama — these are some of 4he teachers that 
have given to Alabama an educational impetus that will 
gather force with the roll of years. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
PROFESSOR SETH SMITH MELLEN.^ 

In all ages great teachers have been potent factors in 
moulding national character. Socrates taught Plato, Plato 
taught Aristotle, Aristotle taught Alexander, and Alex- 
ander conquered the world. 

The United States have been peculiarly blessed by the 
transmission of ideals. The learned scholars of the older 
States educated the young, who passed into newer sections 
to implant the lessons of truth and morality, and lure to 
highest intellectual attainments. 

Professor Seth Smith Mellen was born in Pelham, Mas- 
sachusetts, February 7, 1821, and was graduated from 
Williams College in 1843, during the presidency of Dr. 
Mark Hopkins. He was deeply imbued with the senti- 
ments and spirit of that remarkable educator. Leaving 
the home of his birth, he began teaching in Georgia. He 
afterward removed to Pierce's Springs, in Mississippi, 
where he taught for many years, w^inning an enviable 
reputation as a scholar, a Christian gentleman, and a suc- 
cessful instructor and guide of youth. 

His Pierce's Springs school was established on the ideal 
English boarding plan. The boys were taken into his 
home, and formed a part of his family. They gathered 



1 The Author gives this chapter as an object lesson of the regime of the 
old private academies, as well as a tribute to the memory of a distinguished 
teacher who guided many Alabamians to Pierian Springs. 
164 




PROFESSOR SETH SMITH MELLEN. 165 

about him after the lessons and sports of the day to share 
in social conversation, to receive his admonitions and 
blessings at evening prayers, . ' ' ' ' ; 

and to devote at least two 
hours to the preparation of 
the lessons for the next day. 

The boundless woods for 
hunting, the clear streams for 
swimming and fishing, the 
quietude of country for study, 
native fruits of woods and 
orchards, a bounteous table, 
pure drinking water, a schol- 
arly teacher and his devoted p^of. seth smith Meiien. 
Christian wife, were the factors 

which contributed to " the harmonious development of the 
body, soul, and brain " of pupils committed to his tuition. 
The boys loved him, and carried to their homes the evi- 
dences of his masterful influence. 

During the summer season of 1869, Professor Mellen 
arranged to open the fall session of his school in Mount 
Sterling, a village in Choctaw County, Alabama. Mount 
Sterling had been noted for its excellent schools. Professor 
George F. Mellen, Dr. John Massey, Miss 0. C. DuBose, 
and other prominent teachers had given reputation to its 
educational history. It was not so quiet then as now, but 
it was far from the maddening noise of cities and near the 
Tombigbee River. Prosperity and intelligence marked 
its life. The pretty homes, the social atmosphere, the 
active churches, the wide-awake merchants, the business 
enterprise and thriving farms surrounding it and con- 
tributing to its welfare, invited schools. 

The advent of Professor Mellen, with his interesting 



166 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

family, into the Alabama village was attended with more 
than courteous welcome. Many of his former pupils were 
there, and they greeted him with affection akin to that 
with which children greet a father. The public partook 
of their joyous enthusiasm. The tributes of congratula- 
tion poured from near and far upon fortunate Mount 
Sterling. 

The school opened in September. It filled rapidly. 
Both boys and girls were admitted. They came from 
Mobile City, Choctaw, Sumter, Marengo, Washington, and 
Clarke Counties, from Mississippi and Arkansas. Life 
and laughter, study and fun, such as come only in school 
days, were there in abundance. 

The teacher's life is not checkered by romantic incidents. 
Calm and progressive, it insinuates itself into the channels 
of public and private thought, and fosters ideals that affect 
the higher destinies of the people. Touching directly the 
buoyant natures of the young, it impresses upon them the 
claims of moral and mental culture, and educates them to 
be "joyous, intrepid, and deliberate; impassioned for truth, 
for justice, for liberty, and for country." The flow of its 
impulses is as irresistible as are the tides of the ocean, and 
more full of vital interest in its wonderful variety of same- 
ness. Its pulses strike upon living hearts, which become 
conductors of its magnetism and power into the homes 
and habits of communities. While rarely fired with the 
love of public applause, it is generally replete with kindly 
deeds for the public weal. 

Professor Mellen enjoyed rich experience in leading the 
young into appreciation of culture and learning. It falls 
but seldom to the lot of man to be so admired by his 
pupils. His scholarship and moral integrity commanded 
unbounded respect, while his genial, spontaneous natural- 



PBOFESSOM SETH SMITH MELLEN. 167 

ness in manner and conversation won confidence and pro- 
voked enthusiasm. He possessed remarkable common 
sense to balance his learning, a native energy to enforce 
precept with example, a manly sentiment that infused its 
charm into others, a devotion to duty that was contagious, 
and a confidence in boys that invoked their highest self- 
respect. They strove to be what they supposed he thought 
them. They played pranks, often to his annoyance and 
mortification, but he never failed to pass over the un- 
pleasant places with dignity and firmness, and at the 
same time with assurances of belief in the triumph of 
right that endeared him to them. 

In private business he was successful, and gathered a 
fortune sufficient for comforts and luxuries, and for the 
indulgence of a broad hospitality and liberal charity. 
His interest in politics and the country's welfare was in 
sympathy with his intelligent neighbors, and commended 
him to their full respect and cordial esteem. 

As an educator he must be considered with masters 
whose great services in teaching have been the proud 
heritage of America. If space permitted, it would be 
pleasant to follow the history of some of his pupils who 
to-day occupy prominent pulpits ; who stand at the head 
of colleges and schools ; who have left their impression in 
the statutes of Legislatures ; who have honored the pro- 
fessions ; and who have contributed the influence of intel- 
ligent manhood to business and society. We can indi- 
cate only by mention of Dr. B. D. Gray, the President 
of Georgetown College in Kentucky; Dr. John Massey, 
the President of the Alabama Conference Female College 
in Tuskegee; Judge Reuben Gaines, on the bench of 
Texas; and the cultured son. Dr. George F. Mellen, for 
some years the professor of Greek in the University of 



168 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Tennessee, whose course in the University of Leipsic 
made him a Doctor of Philosopliy, and wliose classic 
speeches before Hterary audiences, and contributed arti- 
cles in newspapers and magazines, mark the scholar of 
elegant tastes and intellectual vigor. 

Not long after settling in Mount Sterling, Professor 
Mellen bought a beautiful home, known as the Wiley 
Coleman Place. He continued the boarding regulations 
as at Pierce's Springs. The boarders occupied cabins 
which stood in a grove in the rear of his dwelling. One 
room with a large, old-time fireplace, and separated by 
twenty or thirty feet from every other cabin, held from 
two to four boys, according to its size and fitness. Only 
two of the rooms were connected. A small farm sur- 
rounding, furnished field products, and a large garden 
and orchard supplied vegetables and fruits. Wells of 
delicious water and woods as background gave comfort 
and freedom. 

Professor Mellen had travelled a great deal and had 
seen much of the United States. He knew many distin- 
guished people. He was himself a most entertaining 
host. He was learned and wise, witty and humorous, 
cordial and sincere. No one came under the spell of his 
hospitality but wished to renew it. Good company, 
music, and books constantly aided him and his family 
in contributing to the uplifting of his boarders. 

The Author has had many years of experience and 
observation in schools. He has never seen another 
teacher who could get as much work out of boys wdth as 
little effort as did Professor Mellen. He was gifted with 
the art of management. He knew boys well and sympa- 
thized with them. There was rarely any serious fric- 
tion. Ambition and honor were the incentives to study 



PROFESSOR SETH SMITH MELLEN. 169 

and the guides to conduct. The esjyrit de corps was admi- 
rable. 

The courses of study embraced especially English, the 
mathematics, Latin, and Greek. The lighter courses had 
but little sympathy. Concentration upon the few subjects 
gave conscious mastery and quickened interest unattain- 
able by other systems. Indifferent students attended, but 
at a discount. All grades w^ere admitted, but the high 
tension and proficiency of the pupils tended to keep out 
the very elementary courses. Young men came to prose- 
cute advanced studies and prepare for business or college. 

Great stress ^vas put on grammar, rhetoric, and decla- 
mation. Brown's Grammar and Quackenbos's Rhetoric 
were perennial standbys, while debates and bi-monthly 
exercises in declamation, with doors open to the public, 
gave superior drill in the art of public speaking. 

The Latin course embraced Andrews and Stoddard's 
Grammar, Andrews' Reader, four books of Caesar's Gallic 
War, six books of Vergil's ^neid, and all the Bucolics 
and Georgics, six Orations of Cicero, Horace entire, the 
Satires of Juvenal, and more, according to time on hand. 
It did not embody the drill of to-day in translating Eng- 
lish into Latin, but it gave a taste for the literature w^hich 
made the study a pleasure. The students could take a 
Latin author and transmute his language into pure idio- 
matic English, and they did it, not with groans and sighs 
and protests, but with a gladness springing from love of 
the literature and its contained thought. Latin w^as to 
them a mine of rich intellectual treasures, from which 
they gathered information regarding the history, the 
habits, the thoughts, the religion, and the sentiments of 
the Romans and contemporaneous nations. 

Greek embraced Harkness' First Book, Bullion's and 



170 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Goodwin's Grammars, Arnold's Reader, four books of 
Xenophon's Anabasis, three books of Homer's Iliad, por- 
tions of Herodotus, Cyropsedia, De Corona, and other 
works, according to wish and time. Its methods and 
purposes paralleled the Latin. Mathematics included 
Robinson's Progressive Higher Arithmetic and University 
Algebra, Davies' Legendre, Surveying, and Navigation. 

Humorous incidents were not lacking. One morning in 
a Latin class Professor Mellen asked a boy to give the in- 
flections to the adjective " henignusy It happened to be 
election-day, and the negroes were going to the polls at 
Butler, the county-seat. The boy began : 

" Nominative, hignignus, hignigna, bignignuvi/^ when 
Professor Mellen corrected him, telling him it was " benig- 
nus, not bignignusy The boy, deeply in earnest about the 
inflection, did not catch the correction and continued : 

" Genitive, bignigni, bignignse, bignignir Professor Mel- 
len again tried to correct him, but the bo}^ seemed un- 
conscious of everything but the declension, and responded : 

" Dative, bignigno, bignignse, bignigno,^^ when Professor 
Mellen almost blazed with, " It is ^enignus, not ^i^'nignus, 
that I want declined. The 'bignigs' are all gone to 
Butler to vote." It was winter season ; a good many 
pupils were around the fire, and the boy supposed Pro- 
fessor Mellen addressing some of them, and his — 

" Accusative, bignigiwm, bignignam, bignignum" ex- 
hausted Professor Mellen's patience and resources. He 
looked at the boy for a moment, and seeing the fellow 
was doing his best and in perfect earnest, he leaned back 
in his chair and said, "Well, go on with your 'bignig,'" 
and joined the school in the hearty laugh which could no 
longer be repressed. 

None of the boarders could forget Peter or his wife 



FEOFESSOR SETH SMITH MELLEN. 171 

Catharine. Peter was a negro with a high sense of honor. 
His mother, ''Aunt" Phillis, was of good old South 
CaroHna stock, proud of her family, Christian in spirit, 
and careful to rear her children for truth and right. 
Peter looked after the farm, the stock, and the wood 
supply, and did the general chores about the premises. 
He did the farm-work on shares ; that is, he received a 
portion of the crop for his services. 

Potatoes were stowed away in banks. Mrs. Mellen glad- 
ly gave the boys as many and as often as they wished, 
but the great banks were very tempting to some of the 
more frolicsome spirits, and no one has ever yet antici- 
pated without a slip the capricious appetites of boys. They 
may eat their fill and carry along a supply for lunch, but 
when this is gone, lessons learned, a few pranks played, 
and the genius of mischief is aroused, they must have 
frolic and at somebody's expense. One night they made 
a raid on Peter's potato banks and very much upset him. 
He was both angry and mortified. He had been reared 
among gentlemen and was too kind-hearted to name 
things harshly. Catharine, his wdfe, was not so consid- 
erate. She was bold in declaring that one who took 
what did not belong to him was guilty of stealing, and 
was a straight-out thief, white or black. 

Mrs. Mellen was distressed, and gave good religious 
advice to the culprits, sweetly counselling against wrong- 
doing, and quoting Scripture to weld the truth. Inno- 
cence, guilt, and penitence played hide and seek in eyes 
and faces. Every mother had given good advice and 
mapped a straight and royal road, a king's highway, for 
her son to travel while at school. 

The ugly breaks always occurred at night, that season 
friendly to unmannered deeds. The next morning the 



172 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

boys awoke betimes. Their lynx-eyed interest stimulated 
early waking if not early rising. Catharine made up the 
beds and sounded first note of the rampage. This afforded 
keenest delight. Of course, the boys slept in perfect ignor- 
ance of any night-hawks, and joined Catharine in honest 
condemnation of the rascals and the deeds. 

The serious part all lay in Professor Mellen's lecture. 
It was sure and without parley. He made good the losses 
to Peter, and requested the boys in future to take potatoes 
from his banks and let Peter's alone. They never again 
troubled Peter's potatoes, but they had fun in other vent- 
ures. They kept promises to Professor Mellen, but he 
had neither the art nor inclination to list offences, and 
the avenues of mischief opened in too many ways to be 
effectually guarded. 

About the first of July the session closed with two or 
three days of public examinations, a big public dinner, 
compositions, and speeches. The girls w^ere as smart and 
pretty as could be found anywhere, and read their com- 
positions as sweetly as girls ever could read them. They 
of course swept the whole range of poetry, music, philoso- 
phy, science, and nature. 

The speeches must be emphasized. Demosthenes prac- 
ticed speaking on the seashore ; Cicero practiced in his 
quiet home in Tusculum ; but the boys in this school prac- 
ticed in the woods and in the Academy. Two or more 
would go together over the hills and declaim and criticise 
pieces selected for entertainments. When they appeared 
upon the rostrum before the public they were inspired by 
the sentiments and spirit of their pieces. The walls and 
ceiling lifted away, and the Senate Chambers opened with 
distinguished company of immortal statesmen. The 
weight of mightiest problems of state and destiny rested 



PROFESSOR SETH SMITH MELLEN. 173 

upon the youthful orators. They became the re-incarna- 
tion of the mighty dead, and uttered, as if the words were 
born in their own brains, the eloquent arguments of the 
fiery orators of the past. 

Professor Mellen spent a few years in college work as 
co-president of Tuskaloosa Female College, but he rightly 
concluded that his best work was with young men whose 
ambition to make studies the stepping-stones to higher 
things called forth the happiest exercise of his consecrated 
intelligence, indomitable energies, courteous manners, 
generous sympathies, and versatile scholarship. 

In recognition of his abilities and attainments the 
University of Alabama conferred upon him the degree 
of Doctor of Laws. 

He died on May 30, 1893, and is buried in Livingston, 
where he spent the last decade of his life. Beside him 
sleep the remains of his devoted wdfe, whom the boys 
loved for her tender kindnesses and gentle courtesies. 

The restless spirit of this utilitarian age is questioning 
the merits of education acquired in the old academies. 
When love of culture and devotion to highest ideals in 
moral and intellectual life shall again be the standard of 
excellence in human attainments, the old academies will 
be re-established in retired country environments; and 
the best of these academies will be guided by men whose 
hearts and brains and habits are invested with the quali- 
ties that make enduring the influence of such friends and 
counsellors of youth as was Dr. Seth Smith Mellen. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
REFORMS AND REFORMERS. 

The coming of ministers of the Gospel and the estab- 
hshment of churches constituted the most powerful and 
most lasting agencies of reform. Long before Alabama 
donned the habiliments of statehood, clergymen were 
traversing the country, and holding religious services in 
private homes and under forest trees. 

The Roman Catholics were among the colonists from 
their first settlement, and the record of their church forms 
the strongest factor in the civilization and Christianiza- 
tion of the Indians and early inhabitants. Their original 
dominancy was broken only by the brief supremacy of 
the English from 1763 to 1780. The population was 
largely of French and Spanish blood, and naturally 
adopted the creed of the fathers across the waters. The 
more rapid influx of the English introduced a large 
Protestant element, and prepared the way for the estab- 
lishment of Protestant churches. 

Probably the first Protestant sermon preached to the 
'• Bigbee " settlers was that of Lorenzo Dow in 1803. Dow 
was an eccentric Englishman, a Methodist, and he trav- 
elled through the wilds of this new country, preaching at 
the several settlements as he made his rounds. He some- 
times took with him his wife, Peggy, and their writings 
give a singular picture of erratic yet consecrated lives, 
and w^eave many thrilling and romantic experiences of 
the wilderness and its denizens. 

174 



REFORMS AND REFORMERS. 175 

The two aggressive and omnipresent churches were the 
Methodist and the Baptist. These began regular work 
about 1808, and they have outstripped all others in the 
number of communicants gathered into their member- 
ship, and in the spreading of the religion of Christ. Their 
ministers lived among the people, and became thoroughly 
imbued with their sympathies. Many of them were un- 
cultured, but they were naturally eloquent and possessed 
of great strength of character ; the protracted meetings in 
towns and villages, and the camp-meetings in the country, 
were seasons of great religious awakenings. On these 
occasions several ministers would gather together, often 
from distant fields of labor, and would preach from day 
to day to congregations made up of people who had also 
gathered from near and far. 

The Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and other denomi- 
nations helped on the great work of Christianizing the 
people. No matter how much w^ealth and social prestige 
attended the homes of the pioneers in their native States, 
their church buildings in this New World were almost 
without exception constructed of poles cut from the sur- 
rounding forests. As the country developed, and saw- 
mills began to convert timber into scantlings and planks, 
better buildings took the places of the old, and many of 
these in turn have given way to the magnificent brick 
and stone churches of to-day. In those humble churches 
of the long ago were born the inspirations of a grand 
people who have never been found wanting when duty 
called. 

In 1802, in Worcester, Massachusetts, was born Miss 
Dorothea Lynde Dix. Miss Dix was left an orphan, and 
upon reaching womanhood she became so much in- 
terested in unfortunates and criminals that she visited 



176 



SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 




Miss Dorothea L. Dix. 



Europe in order to investigate the treatment of pris- 
oners, paupers, and insane. Investigation added to her 
enthusiasm, and when she returned 
home she made a tour of the States 
to effect the estabhshment of asy- 
lums and hospitals. She visited 
Alabama during the session of the 
General Assembly in 1849 and 1850, 
and pleaded for the founding of an 
asylum for the insane. On Febru- 
ary 6, 1852, the General Assembly 
established the Alabama Insane 
Hospital. 

Through the efforts of Miss Dix 
the United States Congress, in 1854, 
passed a bill appropriating 10,000,000 acres of land for 
the endowment of hospitals for the indigent insane; 
^^^^ but the bill was vetoed by President 

IP^ \ Pierce. Miss Dix was Superintend- 

' ^ l|f ent of Hospital Nurses in the Federal 

Army during the war of 1861 to 
1865. She wrote several commend- 
able works, among them Prisons mid 
Prison Discipline. She died in 1887. 
By her recommendation Dr. Peter 
- Bryce was appointed Superintendent 
of the Alabama Insane Hospital, 
which opened its doors for patients 
on April 5, 1861. 
Dr. Bryce was eminently qualified for the high trust 
imposed upon him. He was born in Columbia, South 
Carolina, on March 5, 1834, and was educated at the 
South Carolina Military Academy, but winning the Met- 




Dr. Peter Bryce. 



REFORMS A^D REFORMERS. 



177 



calf Prize for scholarship and taking his Doctor of Medi- 
cine degree from the University of New York in 1859. 
He pursued his studies in Europe, giving special atten- 
tion to diseases of the mind. He was for short periods 
connected with the Insane Hospitals of South Carohna 
and New^ Jersey. 

Upon coming to Alabama in 1860, he brought with 
him his bride and the spirit of research. He was an 
omnivorous reader, and a good judge of men and their 




Alabama Bryce Insane Hospital. 

character. The war coming immediately upon the open- 
ing of the hospital, he managed to maintain and support 
it during the four years of hostilities, to carry it through 
the troubles of " Reconstruction," and bring it out with the 
reins of supervision in his own hands. The hospital soon 
became noted over the world for its advanced methods of 
treating patients. There was entire abolition of all means 
of mechanical restraint. No camisoles, strait-jackets, 
manacles, or crib bedsteads w^ere used to control the 

12 



178 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

excited insane. Dr. Bryce exercised masterly skill both 
in the scientific and administrative departments. He 
established an industrial system, giving much out-door 
employment, keeping everybody busy. Thirty years of 
contact with all manner of diseased minds and deranged 
nervous systems gave opportunities for study and obser- 
vation which he used well. His name was foremost in 
notable discussions throughout the world on mechanical 
restraints of the insane, and his hospital was pronounced 
one of the most comfortable and best adapted in the 
world. 

Dr. Bryce won his patients by following the Golden 
Rule; he did unto them as he would have another do 
unto him in similar circumstances. He probed into the 
powers of the criminal insane, and investigated their 
ability to distinguish right from wrong; and also their 
moral power to hold to the right and refrain from the 
wrong. The meed of praise from close acquaintanceship 
was, " Pure in character and conversation, genial in man- 
ner, and lovable in disposition, he was a man upon whose 
brow nature herself had written Gentleman." He held 
many posts of honor in learned societies. At his death, 
August 14, 1892, he was President of the American 
Medico-Psychological Association, composed principally 
of Superintendents of Insane Hospitals and distinguished 
alienists and neurologists. In his honor the State has 
named the institution over which he presided so long the 
Alabama Bryce Insane Hospital. He left his work to be 
carried on by Dr. James T. Searcy, the present Super- 
intendent. 

A passing tribute is due Dr. J. Hal, Johnson, who 
secured the foundation of the beautiful Institute for 
the Deaf and Dumb in Talladega. This school was 




REFORMS AND REFORMERS. 179 

founded in 1857, and has grown steadily in numbers and 
efficiency. It is still flourishing, being at present under 
the charge of Dr. J. H. John- 
son, the son of the founder. 
Under the same principal are 
the Academy for the Blind 
(1887) and also the School 
for the Negro Deaf Mutes and 
Blind (1891). 

In 1883, Messrs. Reginald 
H. Dawson, W. D. Lee, and 
Dr. A. T. Henley were ap- Reginald h. Dawson, 

pointed commissioners to in- 
spect the convict system of the State. They were em- 
powered to regulate the treatment of convicts by their 
employers. Before this time there was no system about 
the working or the hiring of State prisoners. These 
gentlemen began thorough inspections. They would 
appear in mines, camps, and other convict quarters with- 
out any warning to employers, and thus learn the true 
conditions surrounding the State's prisoners. They 
effected reforms in many ways, compelling more humane 
treatment, better clothing, better rations, and strict regard 
to health laws. They systematized the whole business 
of hiring and overlooking the prisoners, and organized 
intelligent order out of the chaotic confusion of former 
disorder. To them must be traced the origin of methods 
of prison reforms that have given to Alabama a just pride 
in the enlightened treatment of her criminal classes. 

A most ardent worker for prison reforms is Miss Julia 
Tutwiler, whose care for the redemption of all classes of 
unfortunates has distinguished her labors for many years. 
Her far-sightedness has anticipated so many reforms that 



180 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

it is not easy to select those with which she has not been 
in some way connected. Her great work has been in the 
school-room and in the management of the Livingston 
Normal College for Girls, lifting all who come under her 
influence into higher conceptions of life and its avenues 
to usefulness and happiness ; in the opening of all State 
schools for the education of girls, and in the establishment 
of the Girls' Industrial School at Montevallo. 

Dr. J. Marion Sims created a new field of surgery. His 
successful treatment of diseases that had hitherto defied 
the skill of the surgical world placed him among the 
great benefactors of the human race. Not only in Mont- 
gomery, but in New York and Paris, he won the distinc- 
tion of being the greatest surgeon in the world. 

Dr. Jerome Cochran, for eighteen years the State Health 
Physician, ranks among the strong men of the age. Born 
and reared in Mississippi, educated between the plow- 
handles and in the old-field schools, he acquired early 
the sturdy habits of investigation and independent con- 
clusions. He married Miss Sarah Jane Collins just as he 

reached manhood, and two years 
later he was graduated from the 
Botanico - Medical College of 
Memphis, Tennessee. Not satis- 
fied with the principles and prac- 
' tice taught by this school, he en- 
tered the University of Nashvil]< 
completed the required course: 
'^-^^ __^^"^ ^^^^ obtained official appoini 

Dr. Jerome Cochran. ^^^^^ ^^ duties in the University. 

He served during the inter- 
state war as contract physician and surgeon at Marion and 
Tuskaloosa, and "when the bloody strife was over," he 




REFOBMS AND REFOHMEkS. 181 

settled in Mobile (1865). Dr. George A. Ketchum gives 
a graphic picture of Dr. Cochran in a modest office and 
in rather shabby attire, waiting patiently but studiously 
for the honors and emoluments of the future; for Dr. 
Cochran went to Mobile poor, unknown, and without 
friends, but with the confidence that merit would win 
support in that city of beautiful homes and intelligent 
citizens. By the courtesy of Dr. Ketchum he became a 
member of the Medical Society of Mobile, and soon in- 
gratiated himself with the profession and the public. 

In 1870, Dr. Cochran began to publish articles on 
public hygiene in the Mobile Register. His " Origin and 
Prevention of Endemic and Epidemic Diseases of Mobile " 
attracted wide attention. As health-officer of the city he 
combated with remarkable vigor and success the spread 
of small-pox and yellow fever in 1873 and 1874. As 
Secretary of the State Medical Association he studied 
closely the needs of a strong organization empowered with 
authority to protect the health and lives of the people. 
To this end he drafted the Constitution of the Medical 
Association of the State of Alabama, committing the medi- 
cal profession to a more thorough study of medical botany, 
topography, and climatology. His profound knowledge 
anticipated the regeneration of the medical profession in 
its legal, ethical, and educational relationship. His plan 
for the organization of the medical profession challenges 
the world for a superior in " wisdom of conception, logical 
arrangement, completeness of detail, abundance of fruit 
already borne and to be borne." It was rejected by the 
State Medical Association at Montgomery in 1870, at 
Mobile in 1871, and at Huntsville in 1872 ; but it was 
overwhelmingly adopted at Tuskaloosa in 1873. 

The machinery of the plan embraced : 1st. A College 



182 SKETCHES OF ALABA3IA HISTORY. 

of Counsellors with one hundred members ; 2d. A Board 
of Censors composed of ten counsellors ; 3d. County Medi- 
cal Societies. 

Great stress was laid upon the organizing and upbuild- 
ing of County Medical Societies, for through them was 
expected the principal support of the whole system. Each 
county, city, and town has been constituted an original 
body, with power to put in motion the laws of health, 
backed and supported by the authority of the State. 
Through the organization, the public health system of 
Alabama has been protected against the introduction 
and spread of yellow fever and other diseases. Its 
records are among the most valuable historical papers 
of the State. 

Dr. Cochran w^as a member of the sub-committee of 
experts on the " Origin, Cause, and Distinctive Features 
of Yellow Fever and Cholera," and his report to the Senate 
and House of Representatives in 1878 was adopted with 
scarcely a change. He was elected State Health-officer 
on April 11, 1879. 

Dr. Cochran was born December 4, 1834; he died 
August 17, 1896. A life comparatively brief in years, 
but in results co-eval with the centuries. 

Robert Burns truthfully wrote 

" Man's inhumanity to man 
Makes countless thousands mourn." 

Alabama has risen above this charge, and has woven 
the bands of enlightened sympathy about her wayward 
boys. She has realized the wrong of thrusting youthful 
offenders against her laws into companionship with the 
hardened criminals of mature years. She has established 
a Boys' Industrial School and Farm near East Lake, where 




REFORMS AND REFORMERS. 183 

young culprits may be placed and redeemed from the 
vices of evil associations ; where careful supervision, firm 
management, kindly interest, regular employment in 
school and labor on the farm, 
cleanliness and courtesy, may 
develop whatever of latent 
good abides in the heart of 
the youthful offender. This 
crown of wise and humane 
legislation is the fruit of the 
untiring efforts and the great 

mother sympathies of Mrs. R. / 

D. Johnston of Birmingham, \ .-'" 

who for some years has been ^^~^^ r.'d. johrston. 
writing, speaking, begging, 

and urging the State to establish a home for the neglected 
boys of Alabama. She has before public assemblies. State 
legislatures, and private friends, pleaded the cause of the 
boys, " the stuff that men are made of, " until the General 
Assembly of Alabama on Feb. 23, 1899, granted its en- 
dorsement by legal enactment creating the home. 

It granted over $3000 at first, but the good women 
interested secured for the holy cause property in outfit 
and lands that was worth many times this amount, and 
made a showing so commendable as to get $15,000 from 
the succeeding Legislature. Already the people feel the 
beneficial results of the home, and as money and creature 
comforts pour into its endowments and redeem for useful 
manhood the boys committed to its protection and loving 
instruction, the profits to citizenship will inspire a pro- 
founder reverence for the State, and w411 perpetuate in 
grateful benedictions and enlarged sympathies the memo- 
ries of those who helped to build the home. 



CHAPTER XXV. 
I. ALABAMA IN GEOGRAPHY AND IN INDUSTRIES. 

Alabama occupies a favorable geographical position. 
Its northern boundary juts against Tennessee ; Georgia 
skirts its eastern limits, and Mississippi its western; 
Florida and the Gulf of Mexico bound it on the south. 

The Tennessee River enters the northeastern corner, and 
sweeps with majestic current down through the rich grain- 
producing counties of Jackson and Marshall, and skirts 
the borders of Madison, Morgan, Limestone, Lawrence, Col- 
bert, and Lauderdale, passing out in the extreme north-west 
on its voyage to the Ohio. The Tombigbee enters from 
Mississippi on the west, a few miles below Columbus, and, 
having gathered into steamers the cotton and other agri- 
cultural products of Pickens, Sumter, Greene, Marengo, 
Choctaw, western Clarke, and Washington Counties, bears 
them to the beautiful Gulf Port on the bay. It is joined, 
just above Demopolis, by the Black Warrior, wafting barges 
of coal and vessels freighted with the products of farms 
from Hale, Tuskaloosa, and Greene Counties. 

The Alabama, like the great aorta in the human system, 
flows through the heart of the State, bearing the multi- 
plied products of teeming farms and thrifty factories, and 
delivers to markets the immense cotton crops of Mont- 
gomery, Autauga, Lowndes, Dallas, AVilcox, eastern Clarke, 
Monroe, and Baldwin Counties. The Coosa extends several 
hundred miles to the northeast, and is fed by navigable 
branches that reach far into Georgia. Its obstructions to 

184 



ALABAMA IN GEOGRAPHY AND IN INDUSTRIES. 185 

navigation will gradually yield to the national dollar, 
and then its tributes from regions rich in agriculture and 
bounteous in minerals will float upon its bosom into the 
lordly Alabama and find a highway to the sea. 

The Chattahoochee, coming from Georgia, strikes Ala- 
bama at West Point, and takes a southerly course between 
the two States. Joining the Flint, about twenty -five miles 
above the Florida line, it forms the Appalachicola, which 
aff"ords a passage-way to the large steamers of the Gulf. 

The Tallapoosa flows from Georgia and unites with the 
Coosa to form the Alabama. It is not navigable, but 
aff'ords fine water-power for machinery. Its falls and 
rapids are full of beauty. It blends the romantic history 
of victorious Anglo-Saxon and less skilful savages. 

The Choctawhatchee, Escambia, Conecuh, Sipsey, Noxu- 
bee, and other small rivers impart richness to the soil 
along their banks, and await congressional appropriations 
to be widened into channels for boats. 

No high mountains are within the State. The Appa- 
lachian System tapers from Lookout Mountain until lost 
in Bibb and Tuskaloosa Counties, offering wonderful 
variety of hill and valley, rocky gorges, and waterfalls, 
overlooking plains that stretch away into the blue dis- 
tance, and furnishing homes for a hardy race of people. 

Sand-hills pass south eastward ly from Choctaw County, 
giving many miles of rugged hills and enchanting land- 
scapes. Huge rocks and caves, winding streams, and 
towering trees give delightful relief to the sweep of river 
valleys and receding lowlands. 

The State extends a little more than three hundred 
miles from north to south, and a little less than two 
hundred miles from east to west. It contains fifty -two 
thousand two hundred and fifty-one square miles of area. 



186 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Its soils are of every variety, from the poor sand-hills to 
the rich alluvial river-bottoms. Its crops embrace nearly 
everything to be found in the Temperate Zone and many 
things of the tropics. Its forests and minerals, its climate 
and agricultural resources have imparted diversity of 
pursuits, and brought consequent variety in industries. 
It is divided into four great belts — the Cereal, the Mineral, 
the Cotton, and the Timber Belts. 

The Cereal Belt comprises the eight most northern 
counties. It spans the State from east to west, and 
embraces the Valley of the Tennessee with its tributaries. 
No section of the State is more charming in the variety 
of scenery, the fertility of soil, and the salubrity of climate. 
Mountains temper the heat of summer and break the cold 
of winter. Grains and grasses are of marvellous yield. 
Cotton thrives. Hardy orchard fruits and magnificent 
vineyards respond bounteously to intelligent cultivation. 
Wild fruits are exuberant in variety and quantity. Stock- 
raising is profitable. Superb water-power and abundant 
fuel-supply have long sustained factories. Huntsville, 
Florence, Decatur, and Sheffield throb with iron-furnaces 
and other industrial enterprises, while schools and 
churches, press and people give evidence of prosperity 
and social virtues. 

The Mineral Belt lies immediately to the south of the 
Cereal. It embraces twenty-eight counties and contains 
nearly every mineral known to man. It covers one-third 
the area of the entire State. Its soil is not so generally 
productive as that of the Cereal and Cotton Belts, but in 
some sections it yields liberally both wild and cultivated 
products. Everything grown elsewhere in North Alabama 
finds more or less thrift when tried in favored portions of 
the Mineral Belt. Not in agriculture, however, does the 



ALABAMA TN GEOGRAPHY AND IN INDUSTRIES. 187 

region claim distinction. Its exhaustless mineral wealth 
has been the talisman for capital. The geological reports 
of Professor Michael Tuomey, made many years ago, 
corroborated estimates of vast mineral deposits stored in 
hills and valleys ; but agriculture put its spell upon the 
people from the very first settlement, and lulled the spirit 
of diversified industrial progress. Property was largely in 




Picking- Cotton. 



slaves, and agriculture 
conduced to the health 
The freedom of the 
Upon the surrender of 
officers promptly seized 1 
Southerners had stored 
Cotton had been locked 



not only produced wealth, but it 

and happiness of the slaves. 

slaves produced many changes. 

the Confederate armies, Federal 
arge portions of whatever products 

away for the markets of peace, 
from the world by the blockades 



188 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

of war, and immediately commanded exorbitant prices. 
The high prices invited its production to the neglect of 
other crops and the abandonment of other business. 
Everything bowed to " King Cotton." It brought more 
than two hundred and fifty dollars a bale. Farmers 
imported plows, wagons, stock, and even corn and meat. 
Cotton began to depreciate in price. It dropped to 
twenty-five dollars a bale. Conditions became serious. 
Debts grew. An old farmer said that people were planting 
cotton so that they might mortgage the crops to buy corn 
on credit. The " one crop " theory was found to be a mis- 
take. It did not bring relief from the bondage of debt. 
The spirit of inquiry developed. Agents from abroad told 
the stories of mines and factories supplying the nations 
with articles of comfort and luxury. 

A few far-sighted men had braved the impressions of 
the times, and entered other lines of business. Mr. Daniel 

Pratt, after whom Prattville is 
named, had grown immensely 
wealthy in the manufacture of 
; cotton-gins and the coarser prod- 
ucts of the loom. His son-in-law, 
Mr. H. F. DeBardeleben, imbued 
with the spirit of new enterprise, 
opened mines and planted fur- 
naces in the Mineral Belt, bring- 
ing a brighter future within the 
Daniel Pratt. vision of development. Other 

gentlemen of like enterprise saw 
the avenues to commercial and industrial independence 
through mining and manufacturing. Furnaces, foundries, 
factories, mills, and machine-shops began to work up the 
raw material of dormant wealth. Coal-fields, iron-mines, 




BIRMINGHAM. 



189 



and quarries for lime and granite invited capital. It was 
discovered that nowhere else in the world were conditions 
more favorable for the manufacture of iron. The ores 
were practically exhaustless, and were contiguous to lime 
and coal in such enormous quantities as to bewilder the 
most conservative scientists. A new order of things set 
its seal upon the destinies of the people. Cities and 




Entrance to Coal-mine at Adg-er. 

villages sprang into existence. Railroads threaded the 
State. Life and energy were enkindled. The most 
wonderful object-lesson of the new order of enterprise is 
to be learned from the growth and importance of Bir- 
mingham, the " Magic City " of Mineral Alabama. 

II. BIRMINGHAM. 

In 1816 the United States Government donated to an 
insane asylum in Hartford, Connecticut, a large tract of 
land in what is now Jefferson County, Alabama. The 



190 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

trustees of the asylum sent a Mr. William Ely to select the 
land and commit its profits to the objects intended by the 
national grant. Mr. Ely secured to his own use a portion 
of the land, and with business foresight began the build- 
ing of a town. He had the good fortune of getting the 
court-house established on his own town site. 

The town was named Elyton, after its founder, and for 
half a century formed the centre of a sturdy, prosperous 
community. In flush times it drew trade from a large 
section of surrounding country. Its hotels and stores, its 
court-house, its offices of lawyers and doctors, its schools, 
churches, and private residences were the pride and com- 
fort of intelligent and thrifty citizens. W. A. Walker, Sr., 
Judge William S. Mudd, Colonel Joseph Hickman, Doctor 
Joseph R. Smith, and others were among the early resi- 
dents, and their descendants still contribute to the support 
and advancement of business and to the social stability 
of the community. 

The court-house was burned in 1870. The Alabama 
Great Southern and the Louisville and Nashville Rail- 
roads crossed each other nearly two miles to the east. The 
petition of citizens to have the court-house rebuilt near 
the crossing, in what is now Birmingham, was formally 
endorsed by the General Assembly in 1871 ; an event 
which the local bard commemorates by lines beginning — 

"In eighteen hundred and seventy-one, 
When Birmingham was Elyton." 

The first house in Birmingham, except the historic old 
blacksmith shop, had its foundations laid August 8, 1871. 
In December following the city was incorporated with 
twelve hundred inhabitants, eighteen two-story brick stores, 
thirty frame houses, and with contracts for a large number 



BIRMINGHAM. 191 

of buildings for various purposes. Colonel James R. 
Powell, the " Duke of Birmingham," as president of the 
Elyton Land Company, was at this time giving his 
energies and far-sighted wisdom to the building of the 
city. The streets and avenues were admirably planned 
for simplicity and symmetry. Agents sent by capitalists 
confirmed the marvellous estimates of mineral wealth. It 
has been conceded that the Warrior, Cahaba, and Coosa 
coal-fields contain coal enough to form a block ten feet 
thick that will cover more than four thousand square 
miles of area, furnishing more than forty-two billion tons 
of coal for available use — enough to last more than eleven 
thousand years at the rate of ten thousand tons a day. 

A mountain of iron, twenty -five miles long, skirts Bir- 
mingham on the south ; lime and rock quarries abound. 
The world felt the throb of the mighty life and the vast 
possibilities of Birmingham. Wealth poured into it. Skill 
and enterprise gathered to its bosom. Railroads multi- 
plied. Furnaces and foundries were built. Population 
rushed in so rapidly that health regulations could not be 
observed. Cholera broke out and put a brief check upon 
the inrush of people and capital ; but regeneration and 
renewed confidence turned back to this beautiful region 
of mineral wealth admittedly equal to the richest in the 
world. 

A bird's-eye view from Red Mountain fills one with 
mighty conclusions as he notes the sweep of Jones Valley 
and the restless city, with roll of cars bringing in and 
carrying out passengers and freight, with smoke-stacks 
telling of the transmutation of ores into products for the 
use of man, with moving masses of people, and the thrum 
of a thousand industries. The flare of furnaces and the 
roar of ponderous machinery give strange impressions of 



192 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

progress and power. The proud Indian who looked years 
ago from this mountain over the far-reaching valley must 
have felt thrills of wildest pleasure as the view broke 
upon his gaze; and the white man's aggression must 
have given him a deeper sorrow as he looked for the last 
time upon scenes of such rare beauty and loveliness, and 
recognized them to be passing into the possession of an- 
other race. 

In the city and throughout the Birmingham District 
there is a wonderful list of industries. Numerous blast- 
furnaces are in operation. Immense cotton-gin factories 




Plant of the Continental Gin Company. 

and cotton-mills, with nearly every other industry that 
occupies the attention of a vigorous and intelligent peo- 
ple, are a part of the organic life of Birmingham. Ice 
factories, transfer companies, magnificent dry-goods and 
general supply stores, cotton compresses and oil mills, 
lumber firms, factories for the manufacture of furniture, 
of bicycles, of fertilizers, of car-wheels, of sugar-mill ma- 
chinery, of Corliss and other engines, and of immense 



BIRMINGHAM. 193 

electric power-houses help the aggregate of the many-sided 
material industries; while schools, churches, hospitals, 
literary and social clubs foster spiritual life and the higher 
sympathies of humanity. All denominations worship in 
beautiful churches, and engage able talent for their pulpits. 
Nowhere else can be found more enthusiastic members of 
churches, giving more abundantly of labors and money, 
time and prayers, to every cause that calls for consecrated 
services. 

A magnificent foundation for public school instruction 
is seen in the elegant school buildings in different portions 
of the city. The Methodist College at Owen ton, Howard 
College and the Athenseum at East Lake, the Pollock- 
Stephens Institute and the Birmingham Seminary, with 
Holy Angels Academy, and excellent small private schools, 
impart tone to the intellectual life. The annual music 
festivals give proof of high culture in the divine art of 
music, while studios display the products of brush and 
pencil guided by the taste of genius. Newspapers and 
periodicals catch the facts and impulses of the passing 
hours and impress them upon the hearts and minds of 
the people, giving them as evidence of the growth and 
character of public opinion. The Hillman and St. Vin- 
cent Hospitals, with numerous private sanitariums, dis- 
pense gentle services to the sick and suffering. 

The water-supply is ample for a population of two hun- 
dred and fifty thousand, and it is probable that new 
water-works may bring into the city the pure, sparkling 
water of the Gate City Artesian wells. Street railways 
link East Lake, Woodlawn, Avondale, Ensley, Pratt City, 
West End, Thomas, and Bessemer, beautiful suburban 
villages and neighboring cities, with Birmingham, and 
furnish easy access to parks and springs nestling in every 

13 



194 



SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 



direction and inviting to pure water and rural outings. 
The springs are wonderfully interesting. One is forty-five 
feet deep where it first rises from the earth. Rolling away 
through a rustic milk-house it imparts a dehghtfuUy 
pleasant effect. 

Great trunk-lines of railroad furnish ample freight and 
passenger facilities to all points of the compass. Ship- 




Hawkins' Spring". 



ments of iron unload in the ports of England, China, 
Japan, and other world powers, bringing to Birmingham 
manufacturers large bills of exchange — the crowning ex- 
pression of the beautiful in art. 

The practical manufacture of steel began in 1897. Mil- 
lions of dollars have since poured into the establishment 
of steel and by-product plants, and efi'ected the manu- 
facture of basic steel on a large scale in the Birmingham 



BIRMINGHAM. 



195 



District. Millions of dollars have followed for other in- 
vestments. Pretty homes and beautiful macadamized 
roads emphasize the prosperity of the region. The inex- 
haustible supplies of iron and coal and lime, in convenient 
juxtaposition, form the chief sources of wealth and busi- 
ness, but although only thirty years old (1901), and with 
multitudinous material conveniences and money-produc- 
ing developments, Birmingham blends with her matchless 




steel Plant at Ensley. 



progress social, religious, educational, and civic pleasures 
and enlargement. Possibly no other city of its size is so 
free from envy and enmity and the vices that foster gossip. 
Good feeling prevails. Good things evoke thought and 
conversation. Too many enterprises invite contemplation 
to allow time to be wasted over the insipid nothings of life. 
Buoyant, hopeful, energetic, aggressive, the people are 
vigorously concocting plans " for the glorious privilege 
of being independent," and for helping every noble work 
of humanity. 



196 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

When one considers the rapid growth of Birmingham, 
its enormous mineral regions of wealth calling for labor, 
genius, and capital, its splendid churches, its magnificent 
schools, its institutions of charity, its intelligent, high- 
toned citizens, its furnaces and factories, its shops and 
mills, its broad streets and avenues, its commercial ex- 
pansion, its beautiful suburban villages, its climatic sa- 
lubrity, its railroads, its public domes and private homes, 
its exports, its possibilities, there is no wonder that the 
world poured capital, men, women, and children, confi- 
dence, blessings, and hopes into the scales of its prosperity, 
and joined Alabama in making it the " Magic City." When 
it is considered further that Tuskaloosa, Fort Payne, 
Gadsden, Decatur, Sheffield, Florence, Huntsville, and 
many smaller places of North Alabama are as lesser 
diamonds in the circlet of its glory, that among these 
satellites Birmingham sits "as the moon among lesser 
stars," some idea can be formed of the great future that 
awaits the regions of Mineral Alabama. 

III. THE COTTON BELT. 

The Cotton Belt embraces seventeen counties of central 
Alabama. It is far-famed as the Black Belt, so named 
from the prevalent black prairie lands covering the greater 
portion of it. It is one of the finest agricultural regions 
in the world. The lands are full of lime and very pro- 
ductive. They early attracted planters with large capital 
for investment, and have therefore been the home of the 
wealthy class. The poorer settlers who originally entered 
portions of the Black Belt were bought out by the wealthy, 
and removed to the hills and sandy soils in other sections. 
The large plantations were filled with slaves, who made 
the region possibly the most celebrated in history -for 



THE COTTON BELT. 



197 



luxuriant homes in the midst of rural plenty. Thus the 
Black Belt became synonymous with intelligent wealth 
and political power. It has largely dominated the politi- 
cal history of the State. It has ever been the centre of 
social life. 

Few scenes compare wdth a w^ell-managed Black Belt 
farm in summer. The fine dw^elling-house of the o^vner 
stands in a yard of flowers. Servants' houses and barns 




Residence of Peter Weir, Esq., in northern portion of Sumter 

County. 

for stock and storage fringe the rear. Farther away are 
negro cabins giving relief to the shimmering green of 
nature. Fields of corn and cotton stretch away as far as 
the eye can see, waving to the brush of breezes and glint- 
ing in the smiles of sunshine. Tassel and flow^er form 
pictures of plenty in the coming harvests. Hedge-row^s 
of mock-orange enhance the beaut}^ and fence from tres- 
pass. Songs of gladness welling from hearts of happy 
laborers, and timed to the stroke of hoes and the roll of 



198 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

furrows, rise like pseans and benedictions. There is an 
indescribable charm in the blending of so much beauty 
of scene and song of gladness ; a charm enhanced a thou- 
sand-fold by the consciousness that all this expression of 
life subserves the highest wants of man and surrounds 
him with the comforts essential to happiness. 

The luxuries and leisure attending prosperous planting 
often filled the old homes with congenial company. Opulent 
families from the Carolinas, Virginia, and Georgia, launch- 
ing upon the tide of emigration, settled within a radius of 
a few miles from some other neighbor who had preceded 
in purchase and settlement. It thus happened that life- 
long friends were reunited in associations and cemented 
more closely in sympathies and common interests. These 
conditions naturally developed social intercourse. Fine 
horses and carriages made delightfully exhilarating the 
rides from home to home in the summer seasons, and often 
tempted neighbors to risk the "bottomless" roads of 
winter. A royal spirit brooded over everything. Hos- 
pitality was open and abundant. Courtesies were as 
delicate and sure as in the most chivalrous homes of the 
Old World, and were dispensed with grace as natural and 
spontaneous as ever guided lord or lady. The servants 
took pride in the hospitalities of families and by thought- 
ful courtesies added to the pleasures of visits. 

The social spirit has descended from father to son and 
from mother to daughter. It lives to-day and reveals in 
manner and language the elevating influences of intelli- 
gent and careful rearing in homes of refinement and 
culture. 

A dense negro population still occupies this region. 
Cotton is yet the main crop for market, the yield being a 
little more than half the entire crop of the State. The 



THE COTTON BELT. 199 

annual average of cotton is about seven hundred thousand 
bales, and the market value of the cotton crop of the 
Cotton Belt is about twenty million dollars. 

About half the corn produced in Alabama is raised in 
this region. Diversity of crops has given impetus to 
many experiments, and has proved the adaptability of 
the soil and seasons to numerous food-crops, so that now 




Typical Negro Cabin. 

the tendency is to make the food-crops sustain the farms 
and improve the stock. Not only diversified tillage and 
stock-raising have become permanent factors in the in- 
creasing prosperity of the people, but cotton-mills, facto- 
ries, and lumber-mills are numerous and successful. 

Montgomery, the capital of the State, is the principal 
city. It is nestled on the left bank of the Alabama River 



200 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

on a high bluff, which the Indians called Clmnnanugga 
Chattee, which means " the red high bluff." It was in- 
corporated on December 3, 1818, and became the capital 
of the State in 1846. It was named for General Richard 
Montgomery, who fell in battle against the British at 
Quebec. It has wide., beautifully paved streets, with oaks 
and magnolias overshading the sidewalks. Pretty resi- 
dences, surrounded by groves and embowered in flowers 
and shrubbery, impart beauty and quiet dignity to the 
city. The Capitol stands on a high hill and overlooks the 
surrounding scenery. 

General Thomas S. Woodward tells us that Andrew 
Dexter of Massachusetts purchased lands about Mont- 
gomery at the Milledgeville Sale, and had a Mr. Hall 
survey them for a town ; that J. G. Klinck was granted the 
first choice of a lot and the privilege of naming the town, 
which he called New Philadelphia ; that Klinck was the 
first merchant to do business in the town, and said, as he 
cut down an oak on his lot, " This is the first tree— future 
ages will tell the tale" ; that Alabama Town adjoining was 
founded by the Scott and Bibb Company, and secured the 
court-house; that the two towns w^ere united afterward, 
and Klinck named the new town Montgomery ; that 
Arthur Moore built and lived in the first house in Mont- 
gomery. 

From such crude beginnings has grown beautiful and 
historic Montgomery. It is environed by rich farming 
lands, which lay annually at her feet more than a hundred 
and fifty thousand bales of cotton and abundant supplies 
of grains, fruits, and vegetables. It is in the meshes of 
railroad systems that branch into every section of adjacent 
territory and span the continent with their great trunk- 
lines. Commercial energy and industrial interests have 



th:e timber belt. 201 

crowned it with prominence and wealth, and put it in 
touch with all that is most vital in this mighty age. 

It has been the breeder of great spirits. The giant 
orators of ante-bellum days, both in the pulpit and at the 
bar, wrought upon the hearts of a noble people the lessons 
of religious virtue, of patriotism and justice, and sounded 
strains of ambition and political righteousness that " will 
go sounding through the ages." It is the birthplace of 
the Confederacy. 

Abreast of the age in progress and power, in zealous 
church enterprises, in magnificent school systems, in com- 
mercial business, and in charitable impulses, it is strong in 
great achievements and flush with greater hopes. May 
Fortune from a full horn continue to pour blessings upon 
this the capital city of Alabama. 

The Timber Belt includes thirteen counties in Southern 
Alabama. It is in that region of the South which has 
been pronounced '• the most heavily wooded section of the 
civilized world, unless it be the uncleared portions of 
Canada." Its forests contain pine, oak, hickory, beech, ash, 
cypress, cedar, dogwood, sweet gum, elm, magnolia, bay, 
poplar, maple, sassafras, in fact, nearly all the woods to be 
found in temperate and semi-tropical regions. An im- 
mense lumber business sends out annually millions of feet 
of lumber to the coast points of America and to ports of 
foreign countries. Vast shipments of naval stores go from 
the pine forests of this section. Capitalists at home and 
abroad have appreciated the value of our timber wealth 
and have invested many millions of dollars in purchasing 
the lands and constructing mills and railroads, and in 
placing upon the markets of the world a great variety of 
woods in addition to immense naval stores, "tar, pitch, 



202 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

and turpentine " — the bounteous by-products of the Ala- 
bama forests. 

The Belt produces about one hundred thousand bales 
of cotton annually, and is admirably adapted in soil and 
climate to truck farming and general food-crops. Fruits 
and melons thrive luxuriantly. Every county has valu- 
able areas of timber, and this section is blessed with soil 
and conditions that give profitable yield to many varieties 
of crops. 

Railroads and rivers interlock in all portions of the 
State, furnishing ample transit for all products to the 
markets of the world. The small farms are everywhere. 
They are the nursery of a strong, patient, hopeful citizen- 
ship. Few States can compare with Alabama in variety 
and abundance of agricultural, mineral, and lumber 
industries. 



CHAPTEK XXVI. 
ALABAMA IN POLITICS, 1763-1820. 

That portion of our continental domain lying between 
latitude 31° and 32° 28' north, and stretching from the 
Mississippi River to the Chattahoochee, was formed into 
the Mississippi Territory by act of Congress, approved 
April 7, 1798. 

The Treaty of Paris in 1763 confirmed to England all 
of Spanish Florida and all French territory east of the 
Mississippi River, except New Orleans and the adjacent 
district of the Island of Orleans. 

The king of England divided Florida into two provinces, 
and fixed the northern boundary of West Florida on the 
line of 31° north, but finding that Natchez and other 
valuable settlements were to the north of this parallel, he 
made 32° 28' the northern boundary -line. West Florida 
then embraced a large portion of Southern Alabama, w^hile 
the province of Illinois, to the north, embraced the larger 
section of the upper territory of the State. The line of 
partition began at the junction of the Yazoo and Missis- 
sippi Rivers, and passed a little south of Demopolis, a 
little north of Montgomery, and south of Wetumpka. 

In 1793, during the Revolutionary War, West Florida 
was loyal to Great Britain. Spain had for several years 
maintained a strict neutrality in Louisiana, but Oliver 
Pollock, of New Orleans, had regularly aided American 
sympathizers. He is said to have accompanied Captain 
James Willing to Mobile, carrying for distribution copies 

203 



204 sketches' OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

of the Declaration of Independence. Captain \¥illing had 
tried without avail along the Mississippi Eiver to arouse 
interest in the American cause. He was captured at 
Tensaw and put in irons until exchanged for Colonel 
Hamilton, of Detroit, in 1779. 

The supplies from New Orleans to American sympa- 
thizers show that, though neutral, the Spaniards who held 
the city wished a check on the British conquerors in the 
southern colonies. France openly avowed her interest in 
the American cause. England declared war against her. 
Spain offered friendly mediation. England rejected the 
offers, and declared war against Spain. His Catholic 
Majesty, indignant at such ruthless disregard of his friendly 
purposes, recognized American independence, and ordered 
Don Bernardo Galvez, the young and gallant colonel in 
command at New Orleans, to sweep English authority 
from Louisiana and Florida. By right of his conquests 
Spain occupied West Florida. 

In 1782, at the Treaty of Paris, England acknowledged 
the independence of the American Colonies, and admitted 
the southern boundary to be the line of 31° north latitude. 
A year later, England warranted, without defining the 
limits of, West Florida to Spain, who claimed possession 
to 32° 28', the line set twenty years before by England in 
the division of the provinces. The United States, after a 
decade of wrangling, forced terms in the Treaty of Madrid, 
1795, securing an agreement that the future boundary 
between the United States and the Floridas should be the 
31st parallel of north latitude from the Mississippi east- 
ward to the Chattahoochee River. Further concessions 
embraced the opening of the Mississippi to navigation, 
and the privilege of storing merchandise in warehouses at 
its mouth. 



ALABAMA IN POLITICS, 1763-1820. 205 

Andrew Ellicott, a civil engineer, began running the 
line of 31° on April 11, 1798. He started near the Mis- 
sissippi. The next year he finished the survey to St. Ste- 
phens, and in 1800 completed it to the Chattahoochee. 
The Spaniards were much astonished when Ellicott's line 
showed St. Stephens to be in the United States domain. 
Spanish gentlemen were very angry, and, rather than live 
under American government, moved down to Mobile, so 
as to be within Spanish territory. Georgia claimed the 
Mississippi Territory, except a twelve-mile strip along the 
northern portion, which belonged to South Carolina. In 
1785, she established Houston County out of her portion 
of Alabama lying north of the Tennessee River. She 
passed through terrific excitement because of the Yazoo 
frauds, and though the Yazoo sales embraced large por- 
tions of Alabama Territory, the}^ efi'ected scarcely anything 
more than the advertisement of the excellent qualities of 
its soil and climate. 

President John Adams appointed Winthrop Sargent, 
of Massachusetts, the first governor of the Mississippi 
Territory. 

By proclamation, April 2, 1799, Governor Sargent 
divided the district of Natchez into two counties — Adams 
and Pickering. On June 4, 1800, by proclamation, he 
established Washington County, including in its bounds 
all the region between 31° and 32° 28', lying between the 
Pearl and the Chattahoochee Rivers. This was the largest 
county ever created. From its original territory have 
been formed twenty-nine counties in Alabama and sixteen 
in Mississippi. 

One of the nine representatives that met at Natchez in 
General Assembly, on the first Monday in December, 1800, 
w^as from the new county of Washington. This Assembly 



206 



SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 



was the first body of representative white men that ever 
met to make laws for the territory embracing Alabama. 

Governor Sargent's dogmatic measures created dissatis- 
faction. President Jefferson, in ISOl, appointed in his 
stead William C. C. Claiborne, of Tennessee, a native Vir- 
ginian, whose marked talents, w^ide experience, fine address, 
and integrity of character made him popular and useful. 
During Governor Claiborne's incumbency, the Legisla- 
ture adopted for the use of the territory the first regular 
code of laws embodying forms of judicial procedures ; the 

treaty of Fort Confederation 
with the Choctaws confirmed 
cession of all land between the 
Tombigbee and Mobile Rivers 
on the east, and the Chickasa- 
hay River on the west, south 
of Hatchee-Tickibee Bluff on 
the Tombigbee; the United 
States, in 1802, paid to Georgia 
$1,250,000 for the transfer of 
all her claims to lands within 
the Mississippi Territory, 
thereby setting at rest long- 
standing and vexatious quar- 
rels between the Federal Government and plucky little 
Georgia ; 35° was made the northern boundary of the 
territory ; with General James "Wilkinson as joint-com- 
missioner ; Governor Claiborne received, on behalf of the 
United States, December 20, 1803, the formal transfer of 
Louisiana from France, the purchase of this immense 
Louisiana territory having been concluded with Napoleon 
on April 30th of this year. Spain had transferred Lou- 
isiana back to France in 1801. When the United States 




Wm. C. C. Claiborne. 



ALABA3IA IN POLITICS, 1763-1820. 207 

closed the Louisiana Purchase, Spain claimed reserve of 
the Mobile District lying south of 31° and stretching 
from the Mississippi to the Perdido River. 

General Wilkinson figured conspicuously in the early 
history of the Southwest. Assisted by Benjamin Hawkins 
and Andrew Pickens, of South Carolina, he made valuable 
treaties with the Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Creeks. He 
built Fort Adams and captured Mobile from the Spaniards. 
He was suspected of using his office under the United 
States for his personal monetary business advancement ; 
of conspiracy to separate Kentucky from the United States 
and ally it with Spain ; of complicity with Burr's suspected 
plans against both Spain and the United States ; but trial 
before court-martial cleared him, although abundant 
evidence of his guilt was furnished by Daniel Clark, his 
commercial agent at New Orleans. Wilkinson managed 
to hold high office and to stand high in public esteem 
until death, but the historian Gayarre, years afterward, 
unearthed his crafty and criminal correspondence with 
Spanish officials, and fastened the guilty charges upon his 
name. 

Washington County was erected into the Tombigbee 
Judicial District, and President Jefferson appointed Hon- 
orable Harry Toulmin its first United States Judge. 

Judge Toulmin entered upon the discharge of his duties 
in 1804 at Wakefield, near Mcintosh's Bluff, a village he 
named in honor of Goldsmith's Vicar. He contributed 
much to the early development of the legal spirit in the 
Southwest. He inspired his fellow-countrymen to love 
justice and the nobler arts of peace. He was a native 
Englishman, driven from home because, as a clergj^man, 
he was too free in the expression of political opinions. He 
settled in Kentucky, was President of Transylvania Uni- 



208 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

versity in Lexington, and after four years of service in 
that exalted office, he was elected Secretary of State. By 
his masterly statesmanship he attracted the attention of 
President Jefferson. He represented Baldwin County in 
the Constitutional Convention of 1819, and compiled the 
first Digest of the Laws of Alabama. He died at Wake- 
field in December, 1824. 

For many years there were neither officers nor clergy- 
men in the Tombigbee settlements to legalize or solemnize 
marriages. Couples, desiring to marry, plighted hearts 
and lives in the presence of friends, and entered matri- 
mony, agreeing to sanction by due solemnities and rites 
as soon as preacher or officer should come along. The 
eccentric English preacher, Lorenzo Dow, passed through 
the settlements and preached to the people in 1803. 

On January 26, 1805, Robert Williams, of North Caro- 
lina, succeeded Governor Claiborne in office. In the same 
year a part of the Tennessee Valley was acquired from the 
Chickasaws and Cherokees, and from it was formed, on 
December 13, 1808, the county of Madison. At Mount 
Dexter Treaty, near Macon, Mississippi, on November 16, 
1805, the Indians granted large cessions of lands, covering 
the southern portions of Mississippi and Alabama. 

John Hunt, an adventurous pioneer from Tennessee, 
built his cabin on the bluff of a bold spring. With his 
trusty rifle he picked his choice of the wild deer that 
came to drink of the out-flowing stream. In some way 
distant friends and others learned of the beautiful region, 
with fertile soil, mellow climate, and abundant game. 
Soon other cabins nestled near. Such was the beginning 
of Huntsville, first named Twickenliam after the home 
of Alexander Pope, some of whose relatives were among 
the settlers. But the latter name did not hold, and the 



ALABAMA IN POLITICS, 1763-1820. 209 

hardy virtues and strong personality of the original 
settler perpetuated his name in that of the beautiful city 
by the Tennessee River. 

In 1809, Governor Williams was removed from office, 
having been suspected of connivance at the escape of 
Burr. He was succeeded by David Holmes, of Virginia. 
The events of Governor Holmes's administration embrace 
troubles between the settlers and the Spaniards ; the open- 
ing of a military road from the Chattahoochee River to 
Mims Ferry ; the Creek War ; the capture of Mobile from 
the Spanish ; the English attack on Fort Bowyer, and im- 
portant Indian treaties. 

Congress, on March 1, 1817, divided the Mississippi 
Territory, and two days afterward organized the Terri- 
tory of Alabama, fixing the seat of government at Fort 
Stephens, and empowering the President to appoint a 
governor with authority to convene such members of the 
late Mississippi Territory as lived within the limits of 
Alabama. William AVyatt Bibb, of Georgia, was appointed 
governor by President Monroe. He was able and experi- 
enced. He called the first Legislature to meet at St. 
Stephens, January 19, 1818. Mr. James Titus, of Madison, 
was the only member of the upper house, as he was the 
only member of the Mississippi Territory Council in Ala- 
bama. He attended to all the duties of the upper house 
with marked ceremony, calling the council to order, and 
passing upon all messages from the lower house with par- 
liamentary formalities. The lower house consisted of ten 
members, with Gabriel Moore, of Madison, as chairman. 

The Spanish and English in Florida instigated the 
Indians in 1818 to redeem the lands sold and surrendered 
to the United States. Outrages were committed, but Jack- 
son's conquests and courts-martial in Florida quieted the 

14 



210 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Indians, and checked for good the interference of Spanish 
and English subjects. 

The next Legislature met at Fort Stephens, November 
2 to 21, 1818. Governor Bibb's message condemned the 
efforts of Mississippi to scoop that portion of Alabama now 
west of the Tombigbee River and Mobile Bay ; it recom- 
mended advancement of education ; the establishment of 
roads and ferries, and the building of bridges. C. C. Clay, 
Samuel Taylor, Samuel Dale, James Titus, and William 
L. Adams were elected a committee to locate the capital. 
Cahawba was made the capitol site, but Huntsville was to 
be the temporary seat of government until surveys and 
buildings at Cahawba would render it ready for occupa- 
tion. Congress authorized the formation of a State Con- 
stitution in order that the territory might be admitted as 
a State into the Union. The State Constitutional Conven- 
tion met in Huntsville on July 5, and on December 14, 
1819, Alabama was admitted into the union of States. 
The original Constitution recognized and protected negro 
slavery, and granted suffrage to white males twenty-one 
years old and upward. 

People poured into the State. Forests fell; houses rose; 
farms multiplied ; preachers came ; medicine and law 
flourished ; merchants drove thriving business ; mechanics 
were busy and were well paid ; the schoolmaster was 
around, both the ignorant and the learned type ; steam- 
boat companies were formed ; the university was founded ; 
newspapers were established ; banks were chartered ; the 
first State Bank was located in Cahawba, where the Gen- 
eral Assembly met for that year. 

Governor William Wyatt Bibb died on July 10, 1820, 
and his brother, Thomas Bibb, of Limestone, President of 
the Senate, took his office. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 
ALABAMA IN POLITICS, 1821-1865. 

Israel Pickens, who succeeded Governor Thomas 
Bibb, won the executive office over Dr. Henry Chambers 
in the elections of 1821 and 1823. Dr. Chambers 
was brilliant and beloved. In 1825 he was elected ' ^' 
to the Senate of the United States, and died the jg^g, 
next year on his way to Washington. A county 
bears his name. His son. Colonel Hal Chambers, repre- 
sented Mississippi in the Confederate Congress. His 
daughter married the son of Governor Thomas Bibb. 

Israel Pickens possessed high talents, wisdom, and 
virtue, and gave the State a full share in " the era of 
good feeling." Relief, through the United States Con- 
gress, for the embarrassed land-holders, the establishment 
of the State Bank, and provision for presidential electors 
to be chosen by the people, marked his term of office. 
He entertained General LaFayette in 1825, when the 
people of Alabama greeted with continuous ovations "the 
nation's guest" in his passage from the Chattahoochee to 
Mobile. 

John Murphy, of Monroe, was in office when the capital 
was removed from slough-begirdled and malaria- 
blighted Cahaba to Tuskaloosa. The disposition ^^^ 
of lands belonging to the State University, the ,820. 
erection of university buildings, the construction 
of canals around Muscle and Colbert Shoals in the Ten- 

211 



212 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

nessee River, slave laws, opposition to a protective tariff 
system, removal of the Indians, and the Alabama-Georgia 
boundary-line were measures of supreme interest to the 
public. 

Gabriel Moore, of Madison, held the governorship when 
education and morals were keeping pace with material 
advancement. The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit 
Nov.^^1829, Q^^^^^ September 27, 1830, secured from the 
Mar., 1 83 1. Choctaws all their lands east of the Mississippi 
River, and prepared for the removal of the 
tribe to allotted lands in the West. An amendment to 
the Constitution limited to six years the term of office 
of the judges of the Supreme Court; the Tuscumbia, 
Courtland and Decatur Railroad, first in Alabama and the 
first west of the Allegheny Mountains, was begun ; Gov- 
ernor I\Ioore defeated John McKinley for the Senate of 
the United States, and resigned the governorship to 
take the new office ; he was succeeded by Samuel B. 
Moore, President of the State Senate, who filled the Gov- 
ernor's chair from March to November, 1831. Governor 
Samuel B. Moore and Nicholas Davis were both defeated 
in the heated gubernatorial campaign of 1831 by John 
Gayle, of Greene County. 

John Gayle was the champion of the anti-nullification 
sentiment. He was of great dignity and force of charac- 
ter, and came near precipitating a clash with the 
'^^' Federal Government. By the Treaty of Cusseta, 
,835. in the present county of Chambers, the Creeks, in 
1832, surrendered to the United States all their 
land east of the Mississippi, but were not to leave the 
country unless they chose, and the whites were not to 
enter the ceded territory until it was surveyed ; the whites 
already in the territory were to be removed as soon as 



ALABAMA IN POLITICS, 1821-1865. 213 

their crops were gathered. The whites refused to be re- 
moved ; many others rushed into the Indian reservation, 
and the Indians appealed to the Federal Government for 
protection. The United States marshal at Fort Mitchell 
was ordered to use force to check the inrush of whites, 
and some Federal soldiers killed Hardeman Owens, a 
commissioner of roads and revenue in Russell County. 
Great excitement prevailed. Indictments against the sol- 
diers were made by the grand jury of Eussell County. 
The General Assembly had extended the civil jurisdiction 
of the State over the whole territory within its limits, and 
Governor Gayle claimed control of all people in the terri- 
tory. Lewis Cass, then Secretary of War, declared that 
the United States would carry out the terms of the treaty. 
Francis Scott Key, author of " The Star-Spangled Banner," 
as Federal Commissioner, met Governor Gayle and the 
General Assembly in session at Tuskaloosa, and healed 
the imminent breach by effecting a compromise, remov- 
ing the whites only from lands that had been expressly 
reserved for the Indians. 

During this administration a cotton factory was incor- 
porated in Madison County in 1832 ; the railroad was 
completed from Decatur to Tuscumbia ; branch State 
banks were established ; and the people voted against the 
penitentiary system. 

Clement Comer Clay, of Madison, defeated Enoch Parsons 
in the race for governor. The Cherokees, on December 29, 
1835, at New Echota, ceded all their lands east 
of the Mississippi for $5,000,000, and seven '^^^ 
million acres of land in the West, agreeing to j^jy^ iSsj, 
remove within two years : but the treaty was 
distasteful to many of the tribe, and out of it grew bitter 



214 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

feuds and murders. The strong arm of the Federal Gov- 
ernment forced removal in 1838. 

Much excitement arose over the depredations and mur- 
ders committed by the Creeks in East Alabama. Roanoke 
in Georgia was burnt. A company of immigrants was 
murdered. Governor Clay made prompt and ample ar- 
rangements for the suppression of what was feared to be 
the beginning of another Creek War. He collected soldiers 
and supplies, which he turned over to General Jesup and 
General Winfield Scott. He met in Montgomery and won 
over to the Americans the Indian chief Opothleyoholo, 
who aided in quelling the Indian disturbances. General 
William Wellborn, of Barbour County, attacked the In- 
dians on Pea River in Pike County, and, after a bloody 
engagement, routed them. Alabama was soon relieved of 
the Indians. They were removed to the Indian Territory. 

The financial troubles began to create uneasiness — a 
great change from the confidence of 1836, when the Gen- 
eral Assembly abolished taxation and relegated to the 
State Bank the expenses of the State. Governor Clay was 
elected to the United States Senate in June, 1837, and 
was succeeded in office by Hugh McVay, of Lauderdale, 
whose quiet term of four months compassed the election 
of Arthur Pendleton Bagby over Samuel W. Oliver, of 
Conecuh. 

Governor Bagby's administration eff"ected the removal of 

the Cherokees, the organization of separate courts of equity 

and chancery, the adoption of the penitentiary 

' system and the erection of penitentiarj^ buildings 

1 84 1. ^^ Wetumpka, the abolition of imprisonment for 

debt, and the settling of the disputed boundary line 

between Alabama and Georgia. The State and national 

banking systems were giving much uneasiness. The 



ALABAMA IN POLITICS, 1821-1865. 215 

people began to cry against the State Bank. Yellow fever 
and drought intensified the sufferings of the people. 

Benjamin Fitzpatrick, of Autauga, won the governorship 
over James W. McClung, of Madison. He secured steps 
leading to the liquidation of the State's branch 
banks, and then of the " Mother Bank." The Con- '^4i 
stitution was changed so as to establish biennial o 
elections and sessions of the General Assembly 
instead of the annual, as had been the order since the 
admission into statehood ; and the site of the capital was 
voted to be removed from Tuskaloosa to Montgomery. 

Chancellor Joshua Lanier Martin, championing " Bank 
Reform," won the gubernatorial victory in the hot political 
campaign of 1845. His opponent was Nathaniel 
Terry, of Limestone. Governor Martin recom- "^^ 
mended the closing of the banks, and endeared ,3 ._^ 
himself to the people by bold measures that effected 
the settlement of the bank matters. The Mexican War 
was of deep interest to Alabamians, many of whom 
volunteered for service at the front; but only one regi- 
ment under Colonel John R. Coffey, one battalion under 
Colonel John J. Seibels, and a company from Limestone 
in the Thirteenth United States Infantry, were accepted, 
and they w^ere not permitted to participate actively in 
the campaigns into Mexico. The capitol was finished, 
and the State archives were removed to it in its present 
site on " Goat Hill," in Montgomery, during November 
and December, 1847. 

Reuben Chapman, of Madison, defeated Nicholas Davis, 
of Limestone, for the executive chair. He devoted 
himself to the relief of the State's financial burdens, "^^ 
and witnessed the renewal of interest in railroads i%aq, 
and other internal improvements. 



216 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Henry Watkins Collier, of Tuskaloosa, who had long 
been on the Supreme Bench and had left his impress in the 

reports of the Supreme Court, was elected over a 
'^"^^ nominal opposition. He was very popular as a 
1853. J^^g®- His wife Mary, the sister of Mr. Alfred 

Battle, was of congenial tastes, and helped him 
to advance to high positions. His home was the centre 
of culture and liberal hospitality. Under him the 
State made steady and remarkable advances in general 
improvements; schools, churches, farms, railroads, and 
every branch of business throve. 

John Anthony Winston, of Sumter, enjoyed the distinc- 
tion of being the first native-born governor of Alabama. His 

birthplace was in Madison County. He descended 
I 53 from Revolutionary stock in the Old Dominion. 
,3__^ He made a strong governor. He was conservative 

in the expenditure of public moneys, and no doubt 
saved the State from financial embarrassments by vetoing 
numerous unconstitutional measures ; he was called the 
"' Veto Governor." His frequent clashes with the Legisla- 
ture abated nothing of his popularity. His bold, firm 
character not only influenced the men of his day, but left 
its impression upon the history of the State. 

Andrew Barry Moore, of Perry, succeeded to the gov- 
ernorship during the exciting years that ushered in the 

war between the States. In another chapter has 
'^^^ been told his connection w^ith the initial life of 
1861. ^^^ Confederacy: how he espoused zealously the 

Southern cause, aiding in the equipment of State 
troops, and doing everything in his power to stimulate the 
South. When the war closed he was imprisoned in Fort 
Pulaski, in Savannah, Georgia, along with other distin- 
guished Southerners. Upon his release he returned to 



ALABAMA TN POLITICS, 1821-1865. 21 7 

Marion and engaged in the practice of law, enjoying the 
esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens. 

John Gill Shorter, of Barbour, faced the difficult meas- 
ures necessarily arising during the progress of the war. 
It was impossible to meet the demands of govern- 
ment and the expectations of the people. Ques- ' /*' 
tions touching taxes, the redemption of bonds, the ,863. 
quota of State troops, conscription, the necessary 
provisions for families of soldiers, and the general super- 




" Gaineswood," the Home of Gen. N. B. "WTaitfleld. 

vision of affairs, provoked discontent that defeated his re- 
election. 

Thomas Hill Watts, of Montgomery, had won honors in 
peace, and, as Colonel of the Seventeenth Alabama In- 
fantry, had distinguished himself for bravery and 
daring under fire at Shiloh. While in camp ' ^ 
he was apprised of his appointment as Attorney- ,865. 
General of the Confederate States. He fulfilled the 



218 



SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 



duties of his high office in Richmond until called to the 
governorship of Alabama by the election of 18G3. 

Governor Watts met the same difficulties that had beset 
his predecessor in office, and he exerted all his energies 

and abilities to meet the issues 
of the gloomy eighteen months 
of his extraordinary adminis- 
tration. Great battles had 
shadowed the destiny of the 
Confederacy. The fall of 
Vicksburg, the check at Gettys- 
burg, the march of Sherman 
through Georgia, Farragut in 
Mobile Bay, Wilson's cavalry 
advance through the north- 
ern and central counties, and 
Canby's siege of Mobile, pre- 
pared the public for the news of Appomattox and Greens- 
boro. Sadness beyond expression filled the State as it 
realized that all the brave efforts of gallant soldiers had 
failed to roll back the invasion of Federals and the devas- 
tation that inevitably follows war. Governor Watts, 
standing bravely at the helm of State, guarded every 
interest as best he could, and closed his term with the 
surrender of the Confederate armies. 




General Henry D. Clayton, 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

ALABAMA IN POLITICS, 1865-1901. 

From June, 1865, to December following, Lewis E. Par- 
sons discharged the duties of provisional governor. He 
ordered the election of delegates which framed 

"the Constitution of I860," by which slaverv was '^^^ 

"to 
abolished, the " Ordinance of Secession " nullified, ,§53^ 

and the war debt repudiated. On December 20 
Governor Parsons transferred the j^apers and property of 
the State to the Governor-elect, Robert M. Patton, of Lau- 
derdale, who had defeated Michael J. Bulger and William 
R. Smith in the November election. Governor Parsons 
and George Smith Houston were chosen by the ensuing 
General Assembly to represent Alabama in the Senate of 
the L^nited States, but they were forbidden their seats by 
the partisan Republican Congress that conceived the vin- 
dictive measures of " Reconstruction." In like manner 
were treated all the Senators and Representatives from 
States which had formed the Confederacy. 

Governor Patton entered upon his term of office when 
the effects of the war were felt in every business,^when 
public opinion was much divided, when a military com- 
mander overlooked his official acts and appointments, 
when armed troops of the Federal Government were ever 
present at the capitol, and when hostile legislation by the 
Federal Congress constantly interfered with him. He 
was a gentleman of long experience in public matters, 
and his mature judgment and intellectual grasp of the 

219 



i868 



220 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

political and business conditions of the times were severely 
tested and approved in the trying ordeals of his adminis- 
tration. 

Governor William H. Smith, of Randolph, was in the 
executive chair during the stormiest period of Recon- 
struction. The negroes were corralled into political 

organizations to defeat the votes of their former 
to 
,8_Q^ masters in whatever manner the "carpet-baggers" 

and "scalawags" might prescribe; the General 
Assembly crooked the pregnant hinges of its power where 
thrift would follow suffrage, and by reckless legislation 
made possible the following Democratic success in the elec- 
tion of Robert Burns Lindsay for Governor, Dr. Edward 
H. Moren, of Bibb, for Lieutenant-governor, J. J. Parker, 
of Mobile, for Secretary of State, John W. A. Sanford for 
Attorney-general, and J. F. Grant for Treasurer. 

Governor Lindsay was a Scotchman of classical tastes 
and scholarly attainments, a graduate of St. Andrews 

University, and a gentleman of high moral and 
' ^^ social qualities. He came in early manhood to 
1872. Alabama, and began the practice of law in Tus- 

cumbia. He married the half-sister of Governor 
Winston, and served in both houses of the General As- 
sembly. His most commendable effort was to seize the 
railroads, in order to protect the State against the bond- 
holders who demanded payment for past-due interest on 
railroad bonds. A Republican Senate checked his ad- 
ministration in its measures of reform. 

David Paul Lewis, of Madison, the Republican can- 
didate for Governor, defeated Thomas H. Herndon, of 

Mobile, the nominee of the Democrats. The in- 
1872 ... 
tQ trigues of Republicans in the " Court-House Legis- 

1874. lature" and the broken credit of the State added 



ALABAMA IN POLITICS, 1865-1901. 221 

to the burdens of a general financial panic, and prepared 
for Lewis's defeat at the polls and for the downfall of Re- 
publican rule in Alabama. 

George Smith Houston, of Limestone, stands out promi- 
nently among the Democratic governors of Alabama. He 
passed a long and distinguished career in public 
service, ranking high in the Congress of the United '^^"^ 
States, occupying chairs in the most important ,§-3^ 
committees of the House, namely. Military Affairs, 
Ways and Means, and the Judiciary. He spent eighteen 
years in Congress, retiring with his colleagues in 1861, 
when Alabama seceded. He was a strong Union man 
and remained at home during the war, but he refused to 
take the oath of allegiance to the government of the 
United States, and suffered much loss of property at the 
hands of the Federals. 

There confronted his administration the herculean task 
of meeting the stupendous debt left as a heritage of He- 
construction ; this debt 
was found to be irregular 
in many respects, and was 
compromised and refund- 
ed by new bonds ; the sal- 
aries of public officials 
were lessened ; the public 
school system was re-es- 
tablished ; the " Constitu- 
tion of 1875 " was put 
in force; incorporation 
laws permitted or^aniza- „ „ „ 1 

^ p Georg-e S. Houston. 

tion of companies for 

mining, manufacturing, building railroads, and doing 

other business; the Senate resolution to refer to the 




222 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

General Assembly the election of the President and Vice- 
President of the United States put a check upon Federal 
interference with elections; the military withdrew from 
the State ; laws forbade the sale of public offices or the fees 
thereof, and fixed the State's debt to the University at 
$300,000, with interest at 8 per cent. Redress and re- 
form, resurrection and re-establisment of honest meas- 
ures, marked the four years of good government under 
Governor Houston. Upon the expiration of his second 
term he was elected United States Senator from Alabama, 
and died in that high office on December 31, 1879. 

Rufus W. Cobb, of Shelby, was elected without opposi- 
tion from the Republicans. Charles Hays headed the 
Republican Convention, composed largely of negroes, 
which met in Montgomery and passed resolutions 
>878 q£ faith in Republican men and measures, and 
1882. belief in Republican majority of qualified voters, 
but despaired of winning the election because of 
alleged fraudulent election returns. 

During Governor Cobb's terms taxes were reduced and 
their collection was made easier. Schools were improved. 
Mobile City was deprived of its charter, and the Port of 
Mobile was incorporated, having a committee appointed 
by the governor to wind up its debt. Memorials were 
submitted to Congress to remove the 10 per cent, tax 
against State banks, to establish national quarantine 
against infectious diseases, and to check the abuse of power 
by United States officials who harassed the innocent to 
extract illegal fees. Farmers procured protection against 
agents for negro laborers and against cotton thieves by 
limit of sale of seed-cotton. 

General Edward Asbury O'Neal, of Lauderdale, was a 
trained lawyer and a gallant officer in war, leading his 



ALABAMA IN POLITICS, 1865-190L 223 

regiments in the hot battles under Lee in Virginia and 
under Johnston in Georgia. During his terms Congress 
donated forty-six thousand and eighty acres of land to 
the State University ; the Normal College for Girls 
opened in Livingston; the Agricultural Depart- ' ^ 
ment went into operation under Commissioner I. H. ,886. 
Betts, of Madison ; many reforms were inaugurated 
in the treatment of convicts ; and the foundation for the 
monument commemorating the valor and devotion of 
Confederate soldiers from Alabama was laid on Capitol 
Hill, in Montgomery, by Ex-President Jefferson Davis. 

Thomas Seay, of Hale, was successful in private busi- 
ness, distinguished at the bar, and possessed of popular 
qualities that endeared him to all classes. He 
won the Democratic nomination over General H. 
D. Clayton, Colonel John M. McLeroy, and Colonel ,800. 
N. H. R. Dawson, and was elected first over Arthur 
Bingham and then over W. T. Ewing, Republicans. He 
was a thorough gentleman, frail of body, but strong of 
will ; an honor to the State and to his age. His terms 
compassed the burning of the Agricultural and Mechan- 
ical College, the opening of the Normal School at Troy, 
leasing of penitentiary convicts to Tennessee Coal, Iron, 
and Railroad Company ; enlargement of the Institute for 
the Deaf and Dumb, and establishment of the Acad- 
emy for the Blind, at Talladega ; the Convention of the 
Southern Interstate Immigration delegates in Montgom- 
ery ; the organization of the Farmer's Alliance; and 
$50,000 in legislative appropriations to disabled Confed- 
erate soldiers or their widows. 

Probably the most exciting political convention of 
Democrats that has occurred since the war was in Mont- 
gomery in 1890. Joseph F. Johnston, Reuben F. Kolb, 



224 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

James Crook, William Richardson, and Thomas G. 
Jones, five able and popular candidates, were presented 
for governor. A heated canvass had brought delegates 
to the capital city. Reuben F. Kolb had a majority of 
votes over any other candidate, but by combination of 
the delegates the nomination fell to Thomas G. Jones, 
who was duly elected over B. M. Long, the nominee of 
the Republicans. 

The delegates for Kolb believed the combination against 
them an injustice to their choice, and felt a soreness which 
increased as the matter was discussed in their respective 
counties. Populism assumed new growth. Jones had 
been attorney for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, 
and many people had conceived such prejudice against 
corporations as to suspect men who had been connected 
with them. Kolb had been the State's Commissioner of 
Agriculture, and had come into close personal contact 
with the farmers and poor people. The erroneous idea 
seemed to separate General Jones from sympathy with 
the poor, and align him with the interests of the moneyed 
classes. On the other hand, Mr. Kolb was believed the 
friend and champion of the poor and the leveller of the 
rich. The conclusions were unreasonable and unfair to 
both the gentlemen concerned. Two years later Kolb 
was the Populist nominee for governor and Jones the 
Democratic. Both parties claimed the victory of election, 
but the Democrats held the office. 

Governor Jones is a gentleman " to the manner born," 
whose probity and dignity in peace and gallantry in war 
commend him to esteem. His two terms embraced 
' ^^ a period of national business disturbance, money 
1804. depression and labor strikes, and yet he so har- 
bored the State's interests that she came forth from 



ALABAMA IN POLITICS, 1865-1901. 225 

the storm of universal panic with her credit unimpaired, 
and he transferred her, hopeful and vigorous, into the 
guardianship of William Calvin Gates. 

Governor Gates is a man of strong personality, gener- 
ous, far-seeing, practical, able, and popular. He was the 
Democratic nominee over Joseph F. Johnston, and 
the people's choice over Reuben F. Kolb. Finan- ^^^^ 
cial depression marked his term. The State could ,§^ 
not pay public school teachers as their salaries fell 
due. Northern banks refused loans to the governor 
because of the silver plank in the Democratic platform. 
The Industrial School for Girls was opened in Montevallo. 

In 1896 two distinguished Democrats were offered for 
governor : the one, Joseph F. Johnston, of Jefferson, espous- 
ing the dominant silver sentiment ; the other, Richard H. 
Clarke, of Mobile, advocating the business wisdom of 
adhering to gold as the safe standard of money values. 
Johnston won the nomination and the governorship. His 
Populist opponent in the election was A. T. Goodwyn, of 
St. Clair, a man of high moral character, pure in thought, 
noble in conduct, capable, and worthy of the confidence 
of his fellow-citizens, but his star in the political heavens 
was not in the ascendant. For his second term Governor 
Johnston defeated G. B. Deans, Populist, of Shelby. 

Governor Johnston has signalized his term by the 
appointment of Public Examiners of Accounts, who have 
gone from county to county, balancing the books 
and accounts of public officials ; by a called session ' ^ 
of the General Assembly to repeal the Act for a ,poo. 
Constitutional Convention ; by the appointment of 
Back Tax Commissioners to overlook the books of assessors 
and force higher valuation upon taxable properties given 
in too low by the owners ; by a ten-thousand-dollar special 

15 




226 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

annual appropriation for the University, and by the 
irregular sale of University lands ; by economy in expen- 
ditures, and by faithful efforts to enlarge the general 
prosperity. 

The Spanish-American War gave sublime evidence of 
the patriotism of the South. It showed that, although 
cherishing the history of the Confederate States, the 
Southern people place all hope of national destiny in the 
constructive power and patriotism of a united country. 
Alabama troops responded for service. The most daring 

deed of that war was led by 
a native Alabamian, Rich- 
mond Pearson Hobson. When 
Admiral Sampson disclosed 
^& ^^m ^^^^ purpose to " bottle up " 

^P^ ^ Cervera's fleet in Santiago 

^\ Bay, Hobson planned the 

^^^ jA. methods of entering the chan- 

nel-entrance to the Bay and 
sinking the collier Merrimac 
so as to obstruct the only 
navigable exit. With seven 
Richmond Pearson Hobson. g^^lant subordinates he car- 
ried through his plan under 
terrific fire of the enemy. He was assisted by Daniel 
Montague, Francis Kelly, George Charette, Randolph 
Clausen, Osborn Warren Deignan, George F. Phillips, 
and Michael Murphy, the coxswain of the Iowa. 

It was June 3, 1898, when the wires flashed over the 
world the news of the sinking of the Merrimac, and the 
heroism that had braved the guns of Morro Castle, the 
mines of torpedoes, and the flanking batteries along the 
channel to the entrance of Santiago Bay. Hobson and 




ALABAMA IN POLITICS, 1865-190L 



227 



his companions supposed themselves going to certain 
death. As the Merrimac advanced into the desired posi- 
tion it was blown up by the heroes aboard ; shells burst 
all around it, and shot penetrated its sides as it drifted 
before sinking. The men grasped a catamaran as the 
vessel sank, and clung to it until the next morning, when 
Admiral Cervera passed near in a steam launch and took 
them all aboard. They were imprisoned, suffered hard- 
ships, and underwent dangers, being shut up in a fort 
under bombardment from the United States Navy ; but 
not one of them was wounded, and on July 6, at the 
surrender of Santiago, they were all exchanged. 

Upon his release Hobson raised the Maria Theresa, one 
of the wrecked Spanish vessels, but this splendid trophy 
was abandoned in a storm on her voyage to the United 
States, and was grounded and lost near Cat Island. 

Hobson spends his furloughs at his home. Magnolia 
Grove, in Greensboro, Alabama, embosomed in the love 
of family and friends. There he was born on August 17, 
1870, and there he prepared 
for Annapolis, where he was 
graduated with " first honor " 
in 1889. 

William J. Samford was the 
Democratic nominee over Gen- 
eral Charles ^M. Shelley, Jesse 
F. Stallings, and 
'9^^ Charles E. Waller. In 
the election following 
he overwhelmingly de- 
feated Dr. G. B. Crowe, Pop- 
ulist and I. A. Steele, Repub- 
lican. Grave fears attended his sickness as the day 



to 
1901, 




Governor "Wm. D. Jelks. 



228 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

for his inauguration approached ; but he entered upon 
the discharge of his duties, and the pubHc was eminently 
satisfied with his projection of principles and his few offi- 
cial acts when death overtook him in Tuskaloosa on June 
11, 1901. His successor takes his chair by constitutional 
enactment; and, while mourning the untimely death of 
William J. Samford, the people turn with confidence and 
admiration to William Dorsey Jelks, of Barbour, who has 
passed from the presidency of the Senate into the gover- 
norship of the State. 




John Tyler Morgan. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

JOHN TYLER MORGAN. 

John Tyler Morgan was born in Athens, Tennessee, 
in 1824, when Andrew Jackson loomed up a formidable 
rival of John Quincy Adams for the Presidency of the 
United States. When nine years of age, not by oath, as 
did Hannibal of old, but by settlement upon her soil, he 
pledged allegiance to Alabama, and dedicated his life to 
her service. Educated in her academies, he early began 
the reading of law and entered upon its practice in the 
year of his majority. Good fortune placed him at different 
times in partnership with Hon. W. P. Chilton, S. F. Pice, 
A. J. Walker, J. B. Martin, and William M. Byrd, masters 
in the science of jurisprudence, from whom he imbibed 
ideals that have buoyed him — 

229 



280 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

" Upward to the starry heights 
To the shining tracks beyond him, 
On and always on." 

As a Breckenridge elector in 1860 he canvassed the 
State, and thrilled his countrymen by eloquent orations 
upon the absorbing questions of that tumultuous period. 
The next year he was a delegate to the Constitutional 
Convention in Montgomery, and signed the " Ordinance 
of Secession." He entered active service in the Con- 
federate army immediately upon the outbreak of hostili- 
ties, and, flinging his whole soul into the cause, he rose 
rapidly from the rank of major to that of brigadier- 
general. When the war closed he settled in Selma and 
resumed the practice of law. Success crowned him. In 
1877 he was elected to the Senate of the United States, 
and has been re-elected to that high office continuously 
upon the close of his respective terms. 

During his long service he has been honored as no other 
Alabamian, except William R. King, was ever honored. 
He has been put on various committees intrusted with 
matters of vital concern to the Federal Government, both 
in domestic and international relations, and rarely meets 
his peer in accurate information upon everything con- 
nected with the subject under consideration. He is a 
laborious student, and does not commit to information 
bureaus or private clerks the investigation of historical 
facts, but he gives to every question his personal attention, 
devoting himself earnestly and assiduously to every detail 
until ready to inform committees and enlighten the world. 
This habit of research has made him probably the best 
informed man in the Senate. His readiness to elucidate 
in most unexpected emergencies the perplexities and 
intricacies of matters, and that too with the accuracy and 



JOHN TYLER MORGAN. 231 

precision of a specialist, has been the wonder of his friends 
and the astonishment of opponents. 

He is a constitutional lawyer without a superior, a 
statesman of the first order, a Senator of spotless reputa- 
tion, standing in the front ranks of the great men of 
America. As a speaker he is logical and clear, and some- 
times eloquent ; and he impresses listeners with the con- 
sciousness of reserved powers that are as exhaustless as 
they are profound. His expositions are perfectly distinct, 
and embodied in language so chaste and elegant, so classic 
and terse, that the distinguished university scholars who 
visit Washington pronounce him the greatest master of 
English on the floor of the Senate. 

He is a Democrat in politics and true to his party, and 
he measures to the full stature of statesmanship. He has 
no tricks to play upon the Senate. His battles are all in 
the open, and he possesses the confidence of the Senate. 
No one suspects him of ulterior designs. Whatever he 
espouses bears the stamp of sincerity, and however much 
gentlemen may differ from him in opinion, they do not 
question his integrity of conviction. Combative and con- 
siderate, bold and courteous, tenacious of purpose and 
patient under repulse, impassioned and tolerant, far-seeing 
and calm, watchful and competent, wise and brilliant in 
thought and dignified in demeanor, he possesses the highest 
qualifications of the Senator and statesman. 

Alabama has profited largely in internal improvements 
and general weal by measures passing the Federal Con- 
gress through his efforts. She has shared not only the 
prestige of being first in the roll of States and peerless in 
mineral wealth, but also the honors falling to her senior 
Senator, whose career has won encomiums from the Old 
World and the New. 



232 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

It has been truly said of Senator Morgan that he is 
" better than the dry-nurse of genius. Instead of hiding 
himself in seclusion, and devoting his time and strength 
to the manufacture of set orations, elaborated with such 
finish as might take the world by storm, he holds himself 
ready, on all occasions, to grapple the important questions 
of State as they arise." 

Representative men of all political parties admire his 
abilities, integrity, and loftiness of purpose, and feel a 
national pride in a Senator who has guarded the welfare 
of his State, anticipated the trend of history and advocated 
legislation to compass it; comprehended the magnitude 
and power of the United States and pleaded for their 
enlargement ; stood a conspicuous peer among the mag- 
nates of the world, and won a name that brightens the 
eye and stirs the heart of America in its significance of 
honor, guiding the highest genius in maintaining the 
integrity and constructing the destiny of this mighty 
Republic. 

It would be a wonderful lesson in political economy to 
trace the record of Senator Morgan in specific measures 
involving legislation upon finances, railroads, monopolies, 
trusts, the Force Bill, elections, the territories, Hawaii, 
Cuba, the Philippines, or the Nicaragua Canal ; but space 
will not allow. The intelligent observers of Federal 
enactments are wont to say, " Things are coming Mor- 
gan's way." His battles for the Nicaragua Canal have 
been long and persistent. This is the measure that now 
presses him. The Nicaragua Canal must be built, and 
whether or not Congress passes the bill for its construc- 
tion at an early session, the growth of this marvellous 
country and the necessities of its people will sooner or 
later compel the government to open this gate to the 



JOHN TYLER MORGAN. 233 

oceans. Every nation whose ships ply the deep will be 
participants in the blessings of this passage-way, but the 
ports of the Southern States of the Union will thereby 
secure rich harvests of commerce that will never come 
otherwise. Senator Morgan is the recognized champion 
of this enterprise, and it will be a fit and glorious monu- 
ment to his services if during his term of office the Federal 
Congress will pledge the credit and protection of the 
United States, and effect the completion and perpetual pos- 
session of the Nicaragua Canal, a work of such stupendous 
magnitude as would usher in the twentieth century with 
plaudits of all the nations for the progressive and benefi- 
cent spirit of the United States. 



CHAPTER XXX 



ALABAMA IN LITERATURE. 



While it is impossible to give other than a glimpse of 
some of the literary lights of Alabama, it will be pleasant 
to note a few of the authors whose pens have enriched the 
thought of man. No claim will be laid to James McPher- 
son, who compiled the poems of Ossian and who for many 
years was governor-general of the Floridas ; nor shall 
there be credited to Alabama anything that has not been 

inspired by the literary impulses 
of the nineteenth century. It 
is significant of Alabama litera- 
ture that it counterbalances the 
meagre quantity by the excel- 
lent quality and varied charac- 
ter of its offerings. 

To appreciate thoroughly what 
Alabama has to its literary credit 
one must see the Bibliography of 
Alabama by Thomas McAdory 
Owen. This work appeared in 
the 1898 publications of the 
American Historical Association. Nothing else so helpful 
to the student of Alabama history and literature has been 
published. It is a monument to the broadening spirit of 
State culture, and will give Alabama a more honorable 
place in the world of letters. 

234 




Thomas McAdory Owen. 



ALABAMA IN LITERATURE. 235 

Mr. Owen has compiled a Bihliogra'pliy of Mississippi 
and also a Bibliography of Florida. He has prepared the 
Annals of Alabama from 1819 to 1900 as an appendix to 
the History of Alabama by Albert James Pickett. As secre- 
tary of the Alabama Historical Society, he has edited suc- 
cessive volumes of its Transactions and also the Report of 
the Alabama History Commission of 1900. He has the most 
complete private library on Alabamana in existence. 
He has in manuscript a comprehensive history of Ala- 
bama. Through appointment from Governor Samford he 
has been made the first Director of the Department of 
Archives and History which the Legislature created by 
act approved on February 17, 1901. This Department 
occupies room in the Capitol at Montgomery. The object 
of the Department is the care and custody of official 
archives, the collection of historical data, the encourage- 
ment of historical research, and the diffusion of knowl- 
edge. 

The pens of Alabama were early aglow with the life 
and vigor of a wondrous age, bodying forth sentiments 
varying from matters of war and statecraft to the tenderest 
songs of friendship and love. Judge Harry Toulmin 
enunciated the principles of law in a Magistrates' Ghiide 
and in Digest of the laws of the Mississippi Terri- 
tory and of Alabama. In contributions to periodicals 
throughout the United States he invited attention to the 
Southwest. Some half a hundred prominent writers have 
engaged in the work of describing the early explorations 
and the winning of the Southwest from the savage tribes, 
weaving romantic incidents into the bloody years of battle 
until Anglo-Saxon aggression shattered every hope of the 
red man's breast, and sent him a pensioner beyond the 
Father of Waters. Though the tribes have vanished, 



236 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

their language constitutes no inconsiderable portion of the 
basic forms of Alabama literature. The beautifully blended 
song of Alexander B. Meek, catching the Indian words in 
the geography of the State, suggests the imperishability 
of their links in history. He says : 

Yes ! though they all have passed away, — 

That noble race and brave, — 
Though their light canoes have vanished 

From off the crested wave ; 
Though 'mid the forests where they roved 

There rings no hunter's shout, 
Yet their names are on our waters, 

And we may not wash them out ; 
Their memory liveth on our hills, 

Their baptism on our shore, 
Our everlasting rivers speak 

Their dialect of yore. 
'Tis heard where Chattahoochee pours 

His yellow tide along ; 
It sounds on Tallapoosa's shores. 

And Coosa swells the song ; 
Where lordly Alabama sweeps, 

The symphony remains ; 
And young Cahawba proudly keeps 

The echo of its strains ; 
Where Tuskaloosa's waters glide. 

From stream and town 'tis heard. 
And dark Tombeckbee's winding tide 

Repeats the olden word : 
Afar where nature brightly wreathed 

Fit Edens for the free. 
Along Tuscumbia's bank 'tis breathed 

By stately Tennessee ; 
And south, where from Conecuh's springs 

Escambia's waters steal, 
The ancient melody still rings, — 

From Tensaw and Mobile. 



ALABAMA IN LLTERATURE. 237 

In Tuskaloosa many years ago the Reverend Albert A. 
Muller, whose gifted genius delighted for a score or more 
of years and then burnt itself out in dissipation, was a 
poet of such high order that it was said of him : " He 
might have left an Iliad, singing of softer beauties than 
Helen's, greater daring than Diomed's, wider desolation 
than Troy's, repeating and celebrating loves as pure as 
those of Hector and Andromache, and thundering with 
woes deeper than those of Priam and Hecuba " ; and that 
to the Elysium, where great spirits do congregate after 
death, Horace and Vergil would welcome the timid 
approach of his shade. Dr. Henry Tutwiler, Judge Wil- 
liam R. Smith, and other eminent critics have pronounced 
of first magnitude the genius that produced his Sunset at 
Rome; this is a poem in heroic measure, picturing the 
thoughts of the muse as the sun declines and 

" its mellow'd light 
Falls on the far-off Tuscan's rocky height, 
And sends its last blush o'er the yellow wave 
Where Tiber wunds beneath Metella's grave." 

It follows the history of " far-famed Italia," and shows 
the glories of the olden time, when genius and fame met 
in her myrtle groves ; when eloquence and song warmed 
the soul of patriot and of poet ; it recalls buried greatness, 
and, tracing the influence of letters, it glorifies Horace, 

"The Attic wit whose genius fanned the flame 
That lent its fires to gild the Augustan name." 

In apostrophe to Vergil it portrays the joys of boyhood 
in midnight vigils, listening to the clash of Trojan arms, 
and breathing with ^neas the filial vows to his aged sire ; 
and then addresses the Mantuan's shade : 



238 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

" Illustrious Maro ! Rome still reigns for thee ; 
Thy fame decrees her immortality : 
Gone are her glories, sunk her mighty throne, 
Her kings have perished and her victories flown ; 
Arts have decayed, and lettered wisdom sleeps 
Within that tomb where lie its treasur'd heaps ; 
Yet thy pure spirit Uves throughout her clime, 
To swell the measure of its deathless rhyme ; 
And thy proud language still adorns her page, 
The charm of youth, the pride of every age." 

Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz, nee Whiting, of Massachusetts, 
came to Alabama with Professor N. ]\L Hentz, her hus- 
band, in 1834. She had already 
tasted the sweets of literary suc- 
cess, among other victories hav- 
ing won five hundred dollars 
for the prize poem " De Lara, or 
The Moorish Bride," offered in 
competition by invitation of 
Mr. Pelby of the Boston Thea- 
tre. Her residence in Alabama 
and Georgia identified her sym- 
pathies with the Southern peo- 
Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz. pie, and her works are delight- 
ful portraits of the habits and 
better life of the people of her adopted home. Among 
her best works may be mentioned Linda; or The Young 
Pilot of the Belle Creole, and Robert Graham, its sequel ; 
Marcus Warlaiid ; Rena ; The Planter^ s Northern Bride ; and 
Ernest Limvood ; or The Inner Life of the Aidhor. Mrs. 
Hentz is among the few writers of fiction who have laid 
the scenes of their stories in Alabama. William Gilmore 
Simms selected the rugged woods about Tuskaloosa for his 




ALABA3fA IN LITERATURE. 239 

Richard Hurdis, and told the story of De Soto and his 
expedition in Vasconselos, a Romance of the New World. 

Mrs. Octavia Walton Le Vert, in Souvenirs of Travel, has 
expressed with charming grace her experiences in the 
better circles of European society. As Mrs. Le Vert was 
the first American woman to enter the social circles of 
the Old World nobility, her descriptions gave much 
pleasure to the reading public, and placed her among the 
delightful entertainers in the world of letters. 

Joseph G. Baldwin, for years a resident of Sumter 
County, won abiding reputation by his Paiiy Leaders 
and Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi, which ap- 
peared in 1853. These are characteristic works, dealing 
with the great masters in politics, and throwing flash- 
lights of the most sparkling wit upon conditions and 
people. In Party Leaders the judicial and conservative 
qualities of history are balanced with all that would dis- 
integrate. In Fhish Times the true history of meik and 
incidents is revealed in terms known only to those w^ho 
were fortunate to live with the author, or in the scenes 
he portrays. No one who has read this brilliant author's 
works can ever forget Ovid Bolus, Esquire, for whom 
facts were too stale and who had to live upon creations of 
the imagination, or die on the rack of genius unemployed ; 
nor old Sarcasm, in tirades on the younger members of 
the bar ; nor the droll minister witnessing in the assault 
case ; nor Squire A and the Fritters ; nor anything 
Baldwin ever wrote. Willis Brewer quotes from Colonel 
Thomas B. Wetmore : " Oh ! for an hour's talk with some 
man like him, wearing his humanity as he used to wear 
it, with his hat about to turn a back somersault from his 
head, with his forehead growing broader, and his eyes 
sparkling brighter, as he advanced in anecdote, till he 



240 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

was shut out from vision by the tears his mirth created, 
and we were compelled to feel that there was at least one 
great man that could be funny." 

Johnson Jones Hooper was of like intellectual fibre. 
He ranked high as a serious journalist and advocate. 
His recognized abilities made him secretary of the Con- 
federate Congress, and yet his fame rests upon the facetious 
humor of his Simon Suggs, a work of which he was heartily 
ashamed as he rose in public esteem. 

Dr. F. A. P. Barnard, for sometime on the faculty of the 
University of Alabama, and for years afterward president 
of Columbia College, New York, was a constant contributor 
to current literature. While in Alabama he touched the 
highest veins of science and politics, and in lighter moods 
wrote love ditties and numerous stories for press and 
friends. 

The History of Alabama by Albert James Pickett stands 
without a peer in the period it covers. Upon it Mr. Pickett 
spent years of research, contributing freely of a large 
fortune to discover the materials in private and public 
libraries, and to hear from living witnesses the facts con- 
nected with historic events and contemporaneous people. 
With Owen's Annals appended it has become doubly 
valuable as a book of historical reference. 

Joseph Hodgson argues the justice of the South in 
resenting the encroachments of the North and resisting 
in war the destruction of the Constitution of the United 
States in his Oradleof the Confederacy ; or the Times of Troup, 
Quitman, and Yancey. 

John Witherspoon DuBose, as newspaper editor and 
contributor to the Philadelphia Times and other papers, 
has continuously added to the historical treasures of the 
age. Mr. DuBose is especially interesting as a writer on 



ALABAMA IN LITERATURE. 



241 



the subject of politics, slavery, ante-bellum society, con- 
stitutional law, and Southern chivalry ; but as a United 
States expert his Sketch of Alabama drew commendations 
from the Chief of the Bureau 
of Statistics, both on account 
of its statistical accuracy and 
its literary charm of style and 
substance. His best work is 
The Life and Times of William 
Lowndes Yancey ; A Llistory of 
Political Parties in the United 
States from 183 J,, to 186 Jr, es- 
pecially as to the Origin of the 
Confederate States. This work 
has been pronounced by the John witherspoon du Bose. 
Boston Globe "the best contri- 
bution of the South to Southern history" ; and by Senator 
John Tyler Morgan, " A prose epic of rare and charming 
power. No chapter in our history will ever excel it." 

16 




CHAPTER XXXI. 
ALABAMA IN LITERATURE. 

Two most concise and compact volumes of valuable 
personal sketches are William Garrett's Reminiscences of 
Public Men in Alabama, and Willis Brewer's Alabama: 
Her History, Resources, War Record, and Public Men. These 
books touch so many men and matters of Alabama that 
they should be found in every home in the State. Only by 
the influence of great examples can a people be inspired 
to great achievements, and the history of those who have 
built the State should be within the reach of the youth 
of the land. 

The Memorial Record of Alabama, compiled by Brant and 
Fuller, is an excellent two-volume compendium of per- 
sonal history, later and larger than the works of Garrett 
and Brewer, and devoted to the living, giving but scant 
mention of the great founders of the State except as they 
incidentally form a portion of the political, military, 
judicial, and religious history, or as they necessarily 
appear in the discussion of education, industries, railroads 
and navigation, banking, medicine, and journalism. The 
chapters on these subjects were written by Hannis Taylor, 
General Joseph Wheeler, Willis G. Clark, Thomas H. 
Clark, Hilary A. Herbert, Dr. Jerome Cochran, and W. 
W. Screws. The personal sketches are autobiographic; 
they are interesting, but too eulogistic to be accorded th^ 
full dictum of history. 

242 



ALABA3IA IN LITERATURE. 243 

Alabama claims a portion of Sidney Lanier, whose life 
and verses have invited study from the great scholars and 
lecturers of the age. His Science of English Verse is a work 
of remarkable merit, being an essay to explain the reasons 
and principles underlying the charms of rhythmic thought 
and musical adaptation of poetry. Mr. Lanier was proba- 
bly the greatest flute-player of his day, and his poems 
embody the subtle strains and melody-suggesting features 
of the author's own sensitive soul. His Symphony, Marshes 
of Glynn, Corn, Sunrise, and 3Iy Springs are among the finest 
poems of the English language. 3Iy Springs is the re- 
sultant of a wonderful trust in God, and embodies the 
gratitude of a great soul looking through the mists of 
misfortune into the eyes of his beloved wife, closing with 
the tribute — 

" Dear eyes, dear eyes, and rare, complete, 
Being heavenly-sweet and earthly sweet, 
I marvel that God made you mine ; 
For when He frowns, 'tis then ye shine." 

Clifford Lanier, a brother of the poet, is a literary light 
of Alabama. His lectures and his writings are in keeping 
with the cultured taste and native abilities of his family. 

Father Abram Joseph Ryan, of Mobile, singing sublime 
threnodies over the sufferings of his countrymen, and 
weaving beautiful stories of love and faith, was a conspicu- 
ous man of letters. His eloquence and patriotism were 
formative elements in morals and politics. Many a boy 
and many a girl has felt the glow of sublime devotion to 
home and friends, to the good and the true, as he and 
she have read his poems, Significant of his genius is — 



244 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

THE SWOED OF LEE. 
Forth from its scabbard, pure and bright, 

Flashed the sword of Lee ! 
Far in the front of the deadly fight, 
High o'er the brave in cause of Right, 
Its stainless sheen, like a beacon light, 

Led us to victory. 

Out of its scabbard, where, full long. 

It slumbered peacefully. 

Roused from its rest by the battle's song. 

Shielding the feeble, smiting the strong. 

Guarding the right, avenging the wrong, 

Gleamed the sword of Lee. 

Forth from its scabbard, high in the air, 

Beneath Virginia's sky — 
And they who saw it gleaming there, 
And knew^ who bore it, knelt to swear 
That where that sword led, they would dare 
To follow and to die. 

Out of its scabbard ! Never hand 

Waved sword from stain so free. 
Nor purer sword led braver band. 
Nor braver bled for a brighter land. 
Nor brighter land had a cause so grand, 
Nor cause a chief like Lee. 

Forth from its scabbard ! how we prayed 

That sword might victor be ; 
And when our triumph was delayed, 
And many a heart grew sore afraid. 
We still hoped on, while gleamed the blade 
Of noble Robert Lee. 

Forth from its scabbard, all in vain 

Bright flashed the sword of Lee ; 

'Tis shrouded now in its sheath again, 

It sleeps the sleep of our noble slain. 

Defeated, yet without a stain. 
Proudly and peacefully. 



ALABAMA IN LITERATURE. 245 

Another ode of this gifted poet is — 

THE CONQUEEED BANNER. 

Furl that Banner, for 'tis weary ; 
Round its staff 'tis drooping dreary ; 

Furl it, fold it, it is best ; 
For there's not a man to wave it, 
And there's not a sword to save it. 
And there's not one left to lave it 
In the blood which heroes gave it : 
And its foes now scorn and brave it : 

Furl it, hide it— let it rest. 

Take that Banner down ! 'tis tattered ; 
Broken is its staff and shattered ; 
And the valiant hosts are scattered 

Over whom it floated high. 
'tis hard for us to fold it ; 
Hard to think there's none to hold it ; 
Hard that those who once unrolled it 

Now must furl it with a sigh. 

Furl that Banner, furl it sadly ! 
Once ten thousands hailed it gladly, 
And ten thousands wildly, madly. 

Swore it should forever wave ; 
Swore that foeman's sword should never 
Hearts like theirs entwined dissever, 
'Till that flag should float forever 

O'er their freedom or their grave ! 

Furl it ! for the hands that grasped it, 
And the hearts that fondly clasped it, 

Cold and dead are lying low ; 
And that Banner— it is trailing ! 
While around it sounds the wailing 

Of its people in their woe. 

For though conquered, they adore it! 
Love the cold dead hands that bore it ! 



246 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Weep for those who fell before it ! 
Pardon those who trailed and tore it, 
But, Oh ! wildly they deplore it 

Now who furl and fold it so. 

Furl that Banner ! True, 'tis gory, 
Yet 'tis wreathed around with glory, 
And 't will live in song and story 

Though its folds are in the dust : 
For its fame on brightest pages 
Penned by poets and by sages, 
Shall go sounding down the ages 

Furl its folds though now we must. 

Furl that Banner, softly, slowly ! 
Treat it gently, it is holy. 

For it droops above the dead. 
Touch it not — unfold it never — 
Let it droop there, furled forever, 

For its people's hopes are dead. 

Henry Linden Flash published an excellent little book 
of poems in 1860. This first book was his last. It gave 
earnest of literary success, but soon after the war the 
author moved to the West and engaged in general 
merchandise. A lady who had read with pleasure his 
beautiful verses wrote advising him " not to neglect the 
muses, but to go on until his name was carved on the 
loftiest pinnacle of fame's tower." He answered her in 
verse, humorously confessing that his name was painted 
on a six-foot sign and nailed to a wooden shanty, telling 
to all the world that he would sell for cash all kinds of 
western produce. He concluded : 

The truth is, love, this age of ours 
Indignantly refuses 
To take, in payment of our debts, 
The produce of the muses ; 



ALABAMA IN LITERATURE. 247 

' Twoiild seize upon the tuneful nine, 
And set the jades to grinning ; 
The fates it tolerates because 
The hags are always spinning. 

"And so, lest I be deemed a drone 
And be by men forsaken, 
I hide my harp from prying eyes, 
And deal in corn and bacon. 
I talk with eager, business men 
Of trade and current prices ; 
Of Egypt too — the cotton theme — 
But not a word of Isis." 

Mrs. I. M. P. Ockenden, of Montgomery, a daughter of 
Judge Benjamin F. Porter, is a graceful writer. Albert 
Pike offered the literary form of " Dixie " during the war, 
but Mrs. Ockenden has contributed the peace-poem — 

AWAY DOWN SOUTH IN DIXIE. 

In Dixie cotton loves to grow, 
With leaf of green and ball of snow ; 
Here wave the golden wheat and corn, 
In Dixie land where I was born — 
Come away down South in Dixie. 

In Dixie gayest roses bloom, 
The jasmine yields its rare perfume ; 
And here the sea-breeze haunts the South, 
With orange-blossoms in his mouth — 
Come away down South in Dixie. 

In Dixie land we love to give 
With generous hand — we love to live 
With cheerful light and open door : 
What matter if the wind doth blow? 
The heart is warm in Dixie. 

The Dixie skies are bonnie blue, 

And Southern hearts are warm and true, 



248 



SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 



Let there be love throughout the world, 
The pure white flag of peace unfurled 
Floats away down South in Dixie. 

In Dixie it is sweet to rove 
Through piney woods and sweet-gum grove ; 
And hark ! the rebel mocking-bird, 
With sweetest song you ever heard, 
Sings away down South in Dixie. 

In other lands 'tis sweet to roam. 
But Dixie land is home, sweet home, 
And southern maid, with simple song, 
Loves dear old Dixie, right or wrong. 
God bless the land of Dixie ! 

Miss Kate Gumming, in Gleanings from Southland and 
Hospital Life in the Confederate Army, has told the patriotic 
stories of devotion to a cause that thrills every Southern 
heart. Her works deal with incidents that she witnessed 





Mrs. Aug-usta Evans Wilson. 



T. C. DeLeon. 



during the war between the States, and with facts and 
conditions following in the wake of war. 

Mrs. Augusta Evans Wilson cannot be quoted sufficiently 



ALABAMA IN LITERATURE. 249 

to indicate the scope and strength of her genius. Suffice it 
to say that she is confessedly among the greatest novelists 
of the American continent. Her novels have stood the 
test of severest criticisms and have grown in popular 
favor. She is pure in thought, noble in sentiment, 
learned and tender, and yet bold to measure thought 
with the most daring in invention. Her novels are Inez, 
Beulah, Macaria, St. Elmo, Vashti, At the Mercy Of Tiberius, 
Infelice. They must be read to be appreciated. 

T. C. De Leon is a versatile author of national reputa- 
tion. He has written St. Twelmo, a sequel to St. Elmo ; 
The Bock or the Bye, a sequel to The Quick or the Dead; 
Schooners that Bump On the Bar, a sequel to Shijjs That 
Pass in the Night ; and several novels depicting Southern 
society and the sentiments created by the inter-states war. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

ALABAMA IN LITERATURE. 

Dr. William Stokes Wyman, the learned president of 
the University of Alabama, has given interesting and 
instructive contributions to the press, but his friends 
regret that he has not been more generous with his pen. 
He is a profound historian and a scholarly linguist, and 
his articles are hailed with keenest literary appreciation. 
He is especially thorough in knowledge of the Indian 
tribes and early settlers of Alabama. He is a warm lover 
of the muses, and is not only gifted with the happy faculty 
of painting in wondrous colors the scenes and incidents of 
history, but he breathes the spirit of the poet. How sweetly 
touching in sentiment and how musically rhythmic is his 
power can be partially judged from — 

THE WIZAED STREAM. 

I launched my boat on a wizard stream 

In the morning's early glow ; 
I watched the waters sparkle and gleam, 

And the wavelets come and go. 
The winds that swept from the flowery lea 

Were laden with odors sweet, 
And my soul was attuned to the melody 

Of the Naiad's tinkling feet. 

"Wlience art thou, bonny brook," I said, 
'' That singest so soft and low ? 
Where in the hills is the pebbly bed 
From which thy waters flow ?" 
250 



ALABAMA IN LITERATURE. 251 

The breezes held their odorous breath, 

And the flowers bent low to hear ; 
But the nymi^h's low laugh m the depth beneath 

Alone fell on my ear. 

All day reclining in my boat, 

I float far down the stream, 
My soul adrift on the tide of thought 

As in a charmed dream. 
At eve I awake — to dream no more ; 

Mid storm and flying scud, 
I see the wild waves lash the shore, 

My brook is now a flood ! 

"Whither art rushing, O mystic tide, 

Whither so restlessly — 
Into some ocean drear and wide. 

Or into some peaceful sea?" 
I hear no voice but the sea-wraith's cry, 

No sound but the wind's loud moan, 
Wliile the night sweeps down from a starry sky, 

I drift toward the dark unknown. 

Professor Warfield Creatli Richardson is the author of 
numerous magazine and newspaper articles, and his 
delightfully easy and versatile style on subjects full of 
vital interest, and with language a "well of English 
undefiled," is both entertaining and instructive. His 
poetry finds its best expression in "Gaspar; A Eomaunt" 
His daughter, Mrs. Belle R. Harrison, has inherited his 
poetic talents, and in addition to occasional pieces appear- 
ing in current periodicals she has published a book of 
poems. 

Mrs. Elizabeth W. Bellamy, "Kamba Thorpe/' wrote 
Four Oaks, The Little Joanna, Old Man Gilbert, and Penny 
Lancaster, Farmer. Bishop R. H. Wilmer made a valu- 
able contribution to the State's literature in The Recent 



252 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

Past from, a Southern Standpoint. Hannis Taylor, compil- 
ing political and historical theses, caught inspiration for 
the international reputation won by the Origin and Growth 
of the English Constitution, and by his later work on the 
relation of international laws. Peter Joseph Hamilton, 
beginning with The Bric-a-Brac, the students' annual of 
Princeton College, and continuing in literary efforts, 
presented Rambles in Historic Lands; his best work is 





Hannis Taylor. Peter Josepn Hamilton. 

Colonial Mobile, embracing the history of that famous city 
from its birth to the year 1821. 

Dr. Josiah C. Nott made a deep impression on his 
times by his scholarly investigation of yellow fever and 
the causes of its propagation, but more especially by his 
masterful work in conjunction with George P. Gliddon, 
on Indigenous Races of the Earth. 

Dr. Eugene Allen Smith, the State Geologist, with pro- 
lific pen has told the testimony of the rocks, of the vege- 
tables, of the climate, and of nearly everything that has 
arrested scientific investigation in Alabama. His reports, 
bulletins, maps, and other publications embody the re- 



ALABAMA IN LITERATURE. 253 

searches and discoveries of more than three decades of 
special work in scientific fields. Thomas Chalmers 
McCorvey has given to the press letters on the " Protes- 





Dr. Eugene Allen Smith. Thomas Chalmers McCorvey. 

tant Episcopal Diocese of Alabama," "The Alabama 
Creeks," " Some Famous Southern Poems," " Alabama in 
the Domain of Letters," "Southern Cadets in Action," 
" Life of Major James William Abert Wright " ; he has 
published a magazine article on Professor Henry Tutwiler, 
and he is the author of The Government of the People of the 
State of Alabama. 

One of the most energetic and gifted writers of Alabama 
is Dr. George Petrie. Not so much for the amount of his 
literary products as on account of the spirit of his work is 
he to be commended. As teacher of Latin and history 
in the Alabama Polytechnic Institute he is making special 
investigation of the history of Alabama, and is directing 
his works so as to develop in others the spirit of historical 
research. 

Dr. Samuel Minturn Peck is ranked among the greatest 
of lyric poets and is loved for his sunshiny spirit and 



254 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

cheery verses. His lyrics are as sweet as flowers and 
birds and air and sky and youth can make them. Many 
hearts have been made to beat with fresher rhythm and 
keenest delight as they have been baptized with the 
melody of his Cap and Bells, Rings and Love-knots, RJiymes 
and Roses, as he has named his volumes. His poetry is so 
full of sweet images of love and gladness that under their 





Dr. Georg-e Petrie. Dr. Samuel Minturn Peck. 

spell old De Leon would have found some comfort for the 
undiscovered fountain. 

William Russell Smith was probably the most versatile 
and voluminous WTiter the State has produced. His 
works embrace a wide range of subjects and display an 
intellectual genius of high order. For nearly four score 
years he was a resident of Alabama, and witnessed her 
rise in power and influence and her struggles in war; 
her loss of statehood and her throes of " Reconstruction "; 
her new political enfranchisement and her marvellous 
industrial and commercial advancement. Though he 
cast his vote against the " Ordinance of Secession," he 
accepted the judgment of his State and entered her 



ALABAMA IN LITERATURE. 255 

armies in defence of her soil. In all the history of his 
times he never ceased to give forth the products of his 
pen. His entrance into business life was marked by an 
intense interest in letters which made him conspicuous 
for scholarship, and which opened wide the doors to the 
best homes of society. His companions and friends were 
among the most literary and learned, whose respect and 
admiration outlived all the checkered policies and politics 
of an era that tested the souls of men. His high genius 
rose above the storms of parties, and found constant 
delight in books and literary company. 

He loved the old masters, and translated the Iliad of 
Homer for the use of schools. He contributed largely to 
wit and humor, essayed tragedy, poetry, the novel, history, 
and biography. His History and Debates of the Secession 
Convention is a book of rare merit. It contains the 
speeches of the patriots who were anxious to guide the 
State through the impending crisis — speeches which to-day 
seem prophecies. His Reminiscences cast in happy pictures 
the character and conditions of men whom he knew and 
with whom he came into contact. He was an able lawyer, 
a learned judge, and a Congressman who won, immediately 
upon entering the House of Representatives, a notable 
prominence by his opposition to the measures in behalf 
of Louis Kossuth. " The Uses of Solitude " is perhaps his 
most genuine poetic revelation. It bristles with inspira- 
tion, touching many of the immortal names that live on 
deeds of greatness. A single quotation will suggest its 
strain : 

The man of lofty genius, who consorts 
With Labor as a chosen mate, and sits 
And talks with her as conjugal, and leans 
Confiding on her fondly for support^ 



256 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

That man meets few denials ; to his eye 

Nature reveals all secrets ; to his ear 

Selectest melody is ever shaped, 

And harmonies divine enchant his soul. 

The chest of ancient lore, whose ponderous lid 

Is never lifted to the indolent. 

To him is open thrown, and all its gay 

And gaudy contents are spread out before him 

As if the ages past had gathered them 

For his especial use. 

The press was an essential of pioneer life as early as 
1811. In that year the Mobile Centinel, the precursor of 
the press, was established at Fort Stoddert by Hood and 
Miller. It would be interesting to note the great editors 
who have moulded the history of the people. Probably 
the most prominent editor of the State was John Forsyth, 
of the Mobile Register. Thaddeus San ford, Jones M. 
Withers, C. C. Langdon, J. E. Saunders, and other dis- 
tinguished editors have been towers of strength in helping 
the State to foster right and fight against wrong, but John 
Forsyth stands the intellectual champion who met the 
breakers of stormy politics and the convulsions of "Re- 
construction" with a pen bold and incisive, and with a 
diction that mingled the purest classicism with the warm 
life of the people. 

Jeremiah Clemens, brilliant and versatile, yielded to 
the ambition of literary prestige as well as of political 
office. His most popular novels are Bernard Lile, Mustang 
Gray, and The Bivals, these being historical romances 
dealing with the times of the Texas struggle for inde- 
pendence and with the jealousies of Burr and Hamilton. 

Miss Mary Johnston, with Prisoners of Hope and To 
Have and to Hold, has brought regenerate life to the history 
of colonial Virginia, and won peerage among the few 




ALABAMA TN LITERATURE. 257 

authors of this competitive age wlio have distanced all 
others in historical romances. 

Nearly every department of literature has been suc- 
cessfully undertaken by Alabamians, and the renais- 
sance of interest is promising further advances into all 
literary enterprises that dignify and ennoble the people. 
It is with profound regret that want of space forbids 
mention in this work of hun- 
dreds of other literary worthies 
whose lives have pointed through 
letters to the purest and best in 
thought and deed. Dr. J. L. M. 
Curry's Southern States of the 
American Union, Dr. John Allen 
Wyeth's Life of General Nathan 
Bedford Forrest, Dr. B. F. Riley's 
History of the Baptists in Ala- 
bama, Dr. Anson West's History Miss Mary Johnston. 

of Methodism in Alabama, Rev- 
erend Walter C. Whitaker's History of the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church in Alabama, Miss Louise Manly's Soidhern 
Literature from 1579 to 1S95, Mrs. Virginia V. Clayton's 
White and Black under the Old Regime, and The Oirek War, 
by Halbert and Ball, indicate the character of authors 
and subjects that we must pass unmentioned. 

^liss Julia Strudwick Tutwiler has been welcomed by 
the magazines and press of the Union as one of the strong 
and fascinating writers of this many-souled century. Both 
prose and verse have claimed tribute from her talents. 
We close this chapter with her patriotic poem : 

17 



258 SKETCHES OF ALABAMA HISTORY. 

ALABAMA. 

Alabama, Alabama, 
We will aye be true to thee. 
From thy Southern shore, where groweth 
By the sea thine orange tree, 
To thy northern vale where lioweth, 
Deep and blue, thy Tennessee. 

Alabama, Alabama! 
We will aye be true to thee ! 

Proud thy stream whose name thou bearest, 
Grand thy Bigbee rolls along ; 
Fair thy Coosa — Tallapoosa — 
Bold .thy Warrior, dark and strong ; 
Watered like the land where Moses 
Climbed lone Nebo's mount to see, 

Alabama, Alabama ! 
We ^\\\\ aye be true to thee ! 

From thy prairies, broad and fertile, 
Where thy snow-white cotton shines : 
To the hills where coal and iron 
Hide in thy exhaustless mines ; 
Honest farmers, strong-armed workmen, 
Merchants, or whate'er we be, 

Alabama, Alabama ! 
We will aye be true to thee ! 

From thy quarries where the marble 
White as that of Paros gleams. 
Waiting till the sculptor's chisel 
Wakes to life thy poets' dreams — 
For not only wealth of natm-e : 
Wealth of mind hast thou in fee ; 
Alabama, Alabama! 
We will aye be true to thee ! 

Where the perfumed south-wind whispers 
Thy magnolia groves among, 



ALABAMA IN LITERATURE. 259 

Softer than a mother's kisses, 
Sweeter than a mother's song ; 
Where the golden jessamine traiUng 
Wooes the treasure-laden bee, 

Alabama, Alabama ! 
We will aye be true to thee ! 

Brave thy men and true thy women. 
Better this than corn and wine ; 
Keep us worthy, God in Heaven, 
Of this goodly land of Thine. 
Hearts are open as our door-ways, 
Liberal hands and spirits free ; 

Alabama, Alabama ! 
We will aye be true to thee ! 

Little, little can I give thee, 
Alabama, mother mine ! 
But that little — heart, brain, spirit- 
All I have and am are thine. 
Take, O take the gift and giver, 
Take and serve thyself with me : 

Alabama, Alabama ! 
We will aye be true to thee! 



APPENDIX. 



EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 

1540, Nov. 29. De Soto passed out of Alabama into Mississippi. 

1629. Alabama territory embodied in Carolina grant to Sir Robert 

Heath. 
1663. Alabama territory embodied in Carolina grant to Monk, 

Shaftesbury, and others. 
1682-1685. La Salle passed down the Mississippi River, took possession 

of country along the Gulf for Louis XIV. of France, and 

named it Louisiana. 

1698, Sept. 24. Iberville sailed from Rochelle (Brest), France, to make 

settlements of Louisiana. 

1699, Jan. 31. Iberville refused permission to anchor in harbor of Santa 

Rosa (Pensacola), sailed west and discovered Massacre, 
now Dauphin, Island. 

Iberville entered the Mississippi River. 

Fort Biloxi begun. 

Bienville, descending the Mississippi, met the English Cap- 
tain Barr and turned him back. 

Bienville made settlements on Massacre Island. 

France and Spain agreed to the Perdido River as the line of 
partition for their American possessions. 

Twenty-three French girls arrive at Fort Louis to become 
wives of colonists. 

Mobile permanently established on its present site. 

French settlers on Massacre Island plundered by pirate ship 
from Jamaica. 

Louisiana chartered to Antoine Crozat. 

Lamotte Cadillac, governor, and other officers under Crozat 
landed on Massacre Island. 

LVEpinay, governor under Crozat, arrived at Mobile. 

Western or India Company acquired Louisiana. 

Bienville captured Pensacola. 

French repulsed Spaniards who bombarded the settlement 
on Massacre Island. 

Seat of government transferred to New Biloxi. 

Ship Africaine arrived at Mobile with one hundred and 
twenty of three hundred and twenty-four negroes em- 
barked from Guinea. This was tlie first introduction 
of African slavery into the Louisiana colony. $176 was 
the price of a slave. 
1722, Aug. — . Garrison at Fort Toulouse mutinied and killed Captain 
Marcliand, the French commandant. 

1722. Great hurricane swept Louisiana. 

1723, Seat of government of Louisiana transferred to New Orleans. 

260 



1699, 
1699, 
1699, 


Feb. 22. 
May 1. 
Aug. 16. 


1702, 
1702. 


Jan. — . 


1704, 


July 24. 


1711. 
1711. 




1712, 
1713, 


Sept. 14. 
May 17. 


1717, 
1717, 
1719, 
1719, 


March 9. 
Sept. 6. 
May —. 

Aug. — . 


1720, 
1721, 


Dec. 20. 
Mar. 17. 



APPENDIX. 261 

1723. Bienville restored Pensacola to Spain. 

1729, Oct. 28. Terrible massacre of the French at Natcliez. 

1733. General Oglethorpe settled colony at Savannah, Georgia. 

1735. Britisli Fort built at Ocfusicee on the Tallapoosa River. 

1735. Fort Tombeckbe (now Jones' Blulf) on the Tombeckbe 

River, established by Bienville. 
1737. George Galphin, an irishman, ])egan trading with the 

Indians. 

1736, May 26. Bienville defeated at Ackia by the Chickasaws. The 

French were again defeated here in 1752 by the Chick- 
asaws. 

1713, May — . Bienville resigned governorship of Louisiana and returned 
to France. 

1716. Alexander McGillivray born at Little Tallase. 

1758. Captain Bossu made voyage up Alabama and Tombigbee 

Rivers. 

1768, Bienville died in France. 

1772. First cotton-gin in use. (See Pickett's Alabama, p. 326, 

new edition.) 

1772. Tremendous storm at Mobile and along the Gulf. 

1777. William Bartram journeyed through Alabama. 

1781. William Panton in trading-house at Pensacola. 

1782, Nov. 30. Treaty of Peace between United States and England relin- 

quished to United States all territory east of the Missis- 
sippi River down to 31° north latitude. 

1798, April 7. Mississippi Territory created by Act of Congress. 

1811. Spain secretly transferred Louisiana to France, except that 

y)ortion south of 31° between the Mississippi and the 
Perdido Rivers. 

1801, Oct. 27. General James Wilkinson, at Natchez, treats with Chickasaws 

for higliwav from Cumberland district to Natchez; built 
Fort Stoddart; December 8, treated with Choctaws for 
road from Fort Adams to Yazoo River, and with Creeks, 
on June 16, 1802, for large cessions east of a line from the 
Oconee to EUicott's Mound, on the St. Mary's River. 

1802, April 24. Georgia surrendered to United States for $1,250,000 all her 

claims to land of Mississippi Territory. 

1802. Cotton-gins built at Weatherford's "Race Track," Boat- 

vard, and at :M(^lTitosh Bluff. 

1803. Lorenzo Dow, Rev. Tobias Gibson, and Mr. Brown, Method- 

ists ; Rev's. Montgomerv and Hall, Presbyterians ; Rev. 
David Cooper, Baptist, and Dr. Cloud, Episcopalian, be- 
gan, by preachins; and example, " to soften and refine the 
people, and to banish much sin and vice from the worst 
region that ministers ever entered." — Pickett. 

1804. Feb. 2. Land Olfice established at St. Stephens, with Joseph 

Chambers, Ephraim Kirby, and Robert Carter Nicholas, 
Commissioners. 
1800-4. Much confusion and amusement from decision of Justices 

from different states who, in the absence of a special code, 
decided cases according to the laws of the state from 
which the justice had emigrated. 

1805. Much discontent over exacting Revenue laws. 

The Kempers kidnapped by the Spaniards and rescued by 
United States soldiers. 
1805, July 23. The Chickasaws cede 350,000 acres of land in the bend of 
the Tennessee River, 



262 APPENDIX. 

1805, Nov. 14. Creek Chiefs in Washington city grant right of horse-path 
through their country, and 'agree to establish ferries, 
bridges, and accommodation houses. 

1805, Oct. 7. The Cherokees grant mail route from Knoxville to New- 
Orleans. 

1805, Nov. 16. The Choctaws at Mount Dexter cede 5,000,000 acres, thus 
throwing open to American settlement the whole of 
Southern Mississippi. 

1805. United States Military Road cut from Ocmulgee to Mims' 

Ferry on the Alabama. 

1807, Feb. 19. Aaron Burr arrested by Captain E. P. Gaines in Washington 
County, Alabama. 

1807, Dec. — . St. Stephens laid off in town lots, and road cut thence to 
Natchez, Mississippi. 

1810, Aug. — . The Kempers, leading "the patriots," captured Baton Roiige, 
and killed Governor Grandpre, but failed to capture 
Mobile. 

1813, Sept, 1. Josiah Francis, the prophet, with a band of Creeks, attacked 
the Kimbells' and James' homes near Fort Sinqueheld, 
in Clarke County, and massacred twelve people. 

1813, Oct. 4. Colonel William McGrew killed bv Indians at Barshi Creek. 

1813, Nov. 9. Battle of Talladega. 

1813, Nov. 29. General John Floyd with Georgians defeated the Red Sticks 

at Autosse, on the Tallapoosa River. 

1814, Jan. 22. Jackson fights battle at Emuckfau Creek. 
1814, Jan. 24. Jackson fights battle of Enitachopco. 
1814, Jan. 27. General Flovd fights battle of Calabee. 
1814, Mar. 27. Battle of To-hope-ka, or Horse Shoe Bend. 

1814, April 17. Jackson built Fort Jackson on site of old Fort Toulouse. 
1814, April 20. General Pinckney superseded Jackson in command, and 

Jackson repaired to the Hermitage. 
1814, July 10. Jackson, made a Major-General, returned to Fort Jackson 

and took command of the Southern Army. 

1814, Sept. 15. Major William Lawrence repulsed British fleet from Fort 

Bowyer. 

1815, Feb. 15. British captured Fort Bowyer. 

1819, May 3. Election of delegates to frame the Constitution in compli- 
ance with the " Enabling Act." 
1819, July 5-Aug. 2. Constitutional Convention in session at Huntsville. 
1819, Sept. 20, 21. First general election for Governor of Alabama and 
members of Legislature. 

1819, Oct. 25-Dec. 29. First State Legislature at Huntsville. 

1820, May 8. Supreme Court, composed of Circuit Judges until 1832, held 

its first session at Cahawba. 
1820, Oct. 23. Second State Legislature at CVahawba. 
1820, Dec. 18. Governor Thomas Bibb approved Act of Legislature to 

establish the University of Alabama. 
1820, Dec. 21. State Bank chartered for $2,000,000 capital stock; location 

fixed at Cahawba. 
1820. Five electoral votes cast for James Monroe and Daniel D. 

Tompkins. 

1820, Ai)ril 21. Congress established a Federal District Court over Alabama ; 

Charles Tait, Judge; William Crawford, Attorney. 

1821. Patrol system established, to prevent esca]>e of slaves. 
1821. Mobile "Steamboat Company organized, and first steamboat 

passed from Mobile to Montgomery. 
1821. Great freshet. 



APPENDIX. 263 

1821, March 1. First Alabama presbyter}^ established at Cahawba. 
1821, June 4. First called session of the Legislature at Cahawba. 

1823. Baptist State Convention organized at Salem Church, near 

Greensboro. 

1824. Five electoral votes cast for Andrew Jackson and John C. 

Calhoun. Legislature provided that presidential electors 
be chosen by the people. 

1824, Mar. 10. Congress divides the State into two districts, Northern and 

Southern, with Court Sessions at Huntsville and Mobile. 

1825. Vicarate Apostolic (Catholic) of Alabama and Florida 

created. 
1825. First Episcopal Church organized in Mobile. 

1828. Congress granted 4,000,000 acres of land to improve Muscle 

Shoals. 

1828. Five Electoral votes cast for Andrew Jackson and John C. 

Calhoun. 

1829. Constitutional amendment limited ofhcial tenure of judges 

to six years. Ratified by General Assemblj^ June 16, 1830. 

1829. Methodist Protestant Church organized. 

1830. St. Joseph College (Catholic) established at Spring Hill, 

Mobile. La Grange College (Methodist) established at 

La Grange, Alabama. 
1832, Jan. — . First canal in the State opened. It connected Huntsville 

and Looney's Landing on the Tennessee River. 
1832. The Supreme Court was organized, separate from Circuit 

Court judges, as now constituted. A. S. Lipscomb was 

Chief-justice, with John M. Taylor and Reuben Saffold, 

Associate Justices. 
1832. Seven electoral votes cast for Andrew Jackson and Martin 

Van Buren. 

1832. Branches of State Bank incorporated, as follows : 

Januarv 21, Montgomerv, $800,000. 
November 16, Decatur, $1,000,000. 
December 14, Mobile, $2,000,000. 

1833. Nov. 13. Most brilliant meteoric display. 

1834. Daniel Pratt builds gin factory in Autauga County. 

1836, Jan. 9. All taxes removed and State Bank charged with the ex- 
penses of the State's government. 

1836. The seven electoral votes cast for Martin Van Buren and 

R. M. Johnson. 

1837. General financial panic. 

1837-1852, John McKinley on " Bench of the Supreme Court of the 

United States. 
1839, Jan. 7. Judson Female Institute opened to students. 
1839, Jan. 26. Act establishing a State penitentiary. The corner-stone of 

penitentiary was laid by Governor Bagby in October. 
1839, Jan. 26. Supreme Courts of Chancery established. 
1839, Feb. 1. Imprisonment for debt abolished. 
1839, Aug. — . Drought to latter part of January following. 

1839. Malignant yellow fever and disastrous fire in Mobile. 

1840. Seven electoral votes cast for Martin Van Buren and R. M. 

Johnson. 

1841. Judson Female Institute incorporated. 

1841, Dec. 29. Howard College chartered; opened for students Jan., 1842. 

1842. Penitentiary opened for reception of convicts. 

1842. State taxes restored. 

1843. Judson Institute transferred to Baptist State Convention. 



264 APPENDIX. 

184-4, May — . Howard College burned ; re-e.stablished at Marion. 

1844, Nine electoral votes cast for James K. Polk and George M. 

Dallas. 

1845, Jan. 8. Death of Andrew Jackson and universal sorrow. 

1845, Annual elections discontinued ; biennial elections estab- 

lished. 

1846, Jan. 26. The General Assembly selects Montgomery as the future 

site of State Capitol. 

1847, July 13. Professor Michael Tuomey began geological exploration 

of the State. 
1847, Nov. 2. Capitol at Montgomery completed ; December 6, General 
Assembly met in it for the tirst time. 

1847, Dec. 4. Medical Association of Alabama founded at Mobile. 

1848, Jan. 4. Professor Michael Tuomey named State Geologist. 
1848. Dixon H. Lewis died. 

1848. Nine electoral votes cast for Lewis Cass and William O. 

Butler. 

1849. Election of Judges of Circuit and County Courts removed 

from the Legislature and committed to the people. 

1849, Dec. 14. Capitol in Montgomery burned. Both houses were in 

session ; principal archives saved, but many valuable 
papers burned. 

1850. Professor Tuomey's first biennial report of geology of 

Alabama. 
1850. Rebuilding of Capitol begun. 

1850, July 8. Alabama Historical Society organized at the University. 

1851. " Southern Rights Party" hold convention in Montgomery. 

1851, Nov. — . Present Capitol at Montgomery completed. 

1852, Feb. 6. Alabama Insane Hospital incorporated. 

" Southern Rights " convention nominated George M. Troup 
and John A. Quitman. But nine electoral votes cast for 
Franklin Pierce and William R. King. 

1853, Malignant yellow fever in Mobile. 

1853. John A. Campbell appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court 

of the United States, to succeed John McKinley, deceased. 

1854. South and North Railroad chartered. 

1855. The American or Know-nothing Party organized. 

1856. The Methodists founded the Southern University at Greens- 

boro, and the Alabama Conference Female College at 
Tuskegee. 
1856. State Medical Association collapsed for twelve years. 

1856. Nine electoral votes cast for James Buchanan and John C. 

Breckenridge. 

1857. General financial panic. 

1859. Ex-Governor John Gayle died, and William Giles Jones 

succeeded to his office of Judge of the Federal District 
Court. 

1859, Oct. 3. Southern University opened for students. Doctor (after- 

ward Bishop) William M. Wightman, its first president. 

1860. Nine electoral votes cast for John C. Breckenridge and 

Joseph Lane. 

1860, Dec. 24. General election of delegates to the secession convention. 

1861, Mar. 4. Miss L. C. Tyler, grand-daughter of ex-president John Tyler, 

elevated 1:he Stars and Bars, the first flag of the Confeder- 
ate States, to the sunnnit of staff on the Capitol in Mont- 
gomery, 



APPENDIX. 265 

1861, Feb. 4. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana. Texas, and South 
Carolina, through duly eniix >\vere(l representatives formed 
the Congress of the Confederate States of America. 
The temporary chairman was Robert Barnwell, of South 
Carolina, and the temporary secretary was Albert R. 
Lamar, of Georgia. 
The Hon. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, was elected the perma- 
nent presiding officer, and Johnson Jones Hooper, of 
Alabama, the permanent secretary. 
1861, Feb. 9. The eleven States participating cast 109 votes for Jefferson 
Davis and Alexander H. Stephens. Of these, Alabama 
cast 11. 
1861, Feb. 21. First message Mr. Davis sent to the Confederate Congress 
nominated : 
Robert Toombs, of Georgia, Secretary of State. 
C. G. Memminger, of South Carolina, Secretary of Treasury. 
Le Roy P. Walker, of Alabama, Secretary of War. 
1861, April 5. Alabama Insane Hospital admitted its first patient. 

1861, May 20. Seat of Government transferred to Richmond, Virginia. 

1862, Feb. 2. President Davis called for eleven regiments of troops. 
1862, Feb. 6. Fort Henry on the Tennessee surrendered to General Grant. 
1862, Feb. 8. Commodore Phelps steamed up to Florence, captured two 

steamboats, in addition to other captures in passage to 
and fro and burnt the Confederate supplies. 

1862, Feb. 16. Fort Donelson surrendered to General Grant. 

1862, Apr, 6, 7. Battle of Shiloh. 

1862, April 11. The Federal general 0. M. Mitchell captured Huntsville. 

1862, April 13. The Federals captured Decatur. 

1862, April 16. The Federals captured Tuscumbia. 

1862. Salt famine, due to blockades, produced great distress. 

1862, Mav 1. Colonel Scott recaptured Athens from the Federals. 

1862, Julys. Captain P. D. Roddey, the "Defender of North Alabama," 
made successful attack on the Federals near Russellville. 

1862, July 10. Union men from the mountains begin to enlist in the 
Federal army at Decatur. 

1862, July — . Colonel F. 0. Armstrong with Louisiana brigade, and Cap- 
tain P. D. Roddey harass the Federals and destroy 
bridges on Memphis and Charleston Railroad. 
Aug. 5. General R. L. McCook, with staff and escort, captured by 
Confederate scouts under Captain Gurley. General 
McCook killed. 
Aug. 13. Captain Roddey attacked Federals between Tuscumbia and 
Decatur. General Bragg thanked him for his success. 

1862, Aug. 27. Confederates under Colonel McKinstry and Captain Eea 
drive Federals from fort at the mouth of Battle Creek, 
near Bridgeport. 

1862, Aug. — . Federals withdraw from North Alabama to avoid the 
dangers from the advance of Bragg's forces into Ten- 
nessee. 

1562, Sept. 22. Lincoln issued Emancipation Proclamation to go into effect 

January 1, 1863. 

1862, Dec. 31 to Jan. 3, 1863. Stone's River campaign, including battle of 

Murphreesboro. 

1863, Feb. 22. Tuscuml:)ia in hands of Federal Colonel Cornyn. 
1863, Mar. 17. John Pelham killed at Kelly's Ford, Va. 

1563, April 11. General S. A. i\L Wood and" Colonel Dibbrell repulsed three 

Federal gunboats at Florence, 



266 APPENDIX. 

1863, April 17. General P. D. Roddey, with 1200 men, began attacks on 

Federal General Grenville M. Dodge, with 7500 men, at 

Little Bear Creek. 
1863, May-June. Federals under Cornyn burn and destroy immense 

quantities of property between Corinth and Florence. 
1863, July 1, 2, and 3. Battle of Gettysburg. 
1863, JulV 4. Fall of Vicksburg. 
1863, July 31. Death of Wm. L. Yancey. 
1863, Aug. — . Called session of Legislature made 16 to 60 years the conscript 

limit, and appropriated $1,000,000 to support soldiers' 

families during October, November, and December. 
1863, Sept. 19 and 20. Battle of Chickamauga. 
1863, Nov. — . Legislature voted $3,000,000 to support soldiers' families 

during 1864 ; taxed all products ^i^ ; voted $1,500,000 for 

military defense. 

1863, Dec. 17-July 17, 1864. Atlanta campaign. 

1864, Jan. 25. Colonel W. A. Johnson began attacks on Federals in North 

Alabama. 
1864, Jan. 26. Roddey failed to capture Athens ; soon ordered to join 

Wheeler at Dalton, Ga., but sent back in April to protect 

North Alabama. 
1864, Mar. — . Federals captured Decatur. 
1864, May 17. Colonel Josiah Patterson defeated Federals at Madison 

station. 
1864, May 29. General Stephen D. Lee appointed to command the Depart- 
ment (^f Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana. 
1861, July 10. General Rousseau, with 2300 men, left Decatur on raid to 

Opelike. 
1864, July 19. The Alabama, Captain Raphael Semmes, sunk by the Kear- 

sarge. Captain Winslow, at mouth of Cherbourg Harbor, 

off the coast of France. 
1864, July 30. Wilcox's brigade checks the Federals at the Petersburg 

Crater. 
1864, Aug. 20. General John Herbert Kelly killed at Franklin, Tenn. 
1864, Aug. 25. General Ricliard Taylor appointed to command the Depart- 
ment of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana. 
1864, Sept. 19. Gen. Robert Emmet Rodes killed at Winchester, Virginia. 
1864, Sept. 23 to 24. Forrest captured Athens from Colonel Campbell. 

Sept. 25. Forrest captured Sulphur Trestle. 
1864, Sept. — . Sherman followed Hood as far as Gaylesville, Alabama, 

and detachments do mucli damage in region toward 

Gadsden. 
1864, Oct. 7. General John Gregg, killed leading Field's division against 

Federal lines, near Richmond. 
1864, Oct. 26. A portion of Hood's army made unsuccessful attack on 

Federal fortifications around Decatur. 

1864, Nov. 30. Battle of Franklin, Tennessee. 

1865, Mar. 29. Federal General J. H. Wilson's three columns converge at 

Elvton. 
1865, Mar. 31. Federals burn the Red INIountain, Central. Bibb, Cahaba 

and Columl)ian Iron Works. 
1865, April 1. Forrest checked Federals near Dixie Station, and killed 

Captain Taylor, Federal, in perstmal encounter. 
1865, April 2. Selma captured by General J. H. Wilson. 
1865, April 12. Montgomery captured bv General J. H. Wilson. 
1865, May 4. General Richard Taylor, Commanding the Department of 

the West, surrendered to General Canby, at Citronelle. 



APPENDIX. 267 

1865, May4-June 21. Civil Governiiient suspended. 

1865, June 21. President Johnson appointed Lewis E. Parsons, Provisional 
Governor of Alabama. 

1865. Robbers in unitbrnis of United States soldiers, commit nu- 

merous depredations. 

1865, Sept. 12-30. Constitutional Convention, with Ex-Governor Benjamin 

Fitzpatriek, president, abolished slavery, annulled Ordi- 
nance of Secession, provided for election in November, 
and for meeting of the General Assembly. 

1866, Jan. 16. Legislature presents memorial to President Johnson, pe- 

titioning withdrawal of Federal troops from Alabama. 
1866, Feb. 22. Legislatui-e approved the policy of President Johnson, and 
denounced those whose interests in the State were pro- 
moted by false representation. It pledged to the negro 
race justice, humanity, and good faith. 

1866, Dec. 6. Legislature refused to ratify Fourteenth Amendment to Con- 

stitution of the United States. 

1867, March 2-27. Congress relegated Alabama to military rule, and made 

adoption of the " Fourteenth Amendment " by a 
majority of electors essential to the State's representa- 
tion in Congress. 

1867, Nov. 5-Dec. 6. Constitutional Convention in Capitol at Montgomery, 

E. W. Peck, president, was composed of carpet-baggers, 
scalawags, negroes, and a few decent whites. 

1868, Jan. 1. Representative men of the "Conservative Party," in confer- 

ence at Montgomery, planned to defeat the unsavory 
Reconstruction Constitution, and named Januarj'^ 30 as 
a day of fasting and prayer. 

1868, Feb. 4. Vote on the Constitution falling below majority of registered 
voters, that instrument failed of ratification. Congress, 
however, forced the Constitution on the State. 

1868, July 13-Dec. 3. The " Radical " Legislature, nominated by the " Black 
Man's Party," ratified the " Fourteenth Amendment." 

1868. Senators-elect" were, bv terms of the Constitution, to draw 

lots for long or short terms, half-and-half. The senators 
refused to draw and so all held the long term. 

1868, July — . New university buildings at Tuskaloosa com]-)leted. 

1868. Democrats support Horatio Seymour and F. P. Blair for 

president and vice-president' of the United States. 

1868. Eight electoral votes cast for Ulysses S. Grant and Schuvler 

Colfax, Republicans. 

1869, Jan. 1. Freedmen's Bureau discontinued by operation of Act of 

Congress. 
1869, Apr. — . New university building opened to students. 

1869, Nov. 24. General Assembly ratified the " Fifteenth Amendment." 

1870, The Conservative Party, aligning with Northern Democrats, 

took the name " Democratic and Conservative Party." 

1871, Jan. 1. Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad failed to pay interest 

due on bonds and Governor Lindsay seized the property 
of the railroad to secure the State against loss. 

1871, Sept. 26. General .Tames H. Clanton killed at Knoxville, Tennessee, 

by David ]M. Nelson, a Federal. 

1872, Mar. 20. State Polytechnic Institute, as Agricultural and Mechanical 

College, established at Auburn, in East Alabama College 
which the Methodists had donated to the State. 

1872. Electoral votes cast for Grant and Wilson. 

1872, Dec. — . State Normal College established at Florence. 



268 APPENDIX. 

1873. Cholera in Birmingliain. Yellow fever in Mobile. 

1873. Patrons of Husbandry organized. 

1873, Apr. 18. Dr. Eugene Allen Smith appointed State Geologist. 
1873. John (}. Cullman planted the German colony in what is 

now Cullman County. 

1873, Dec. 9. State Normal and Industrial School for Negroes established 

at Huntsville. 

1874. The Democratic party at the North carried Congressional 

elections and thus rebuked the persecutions against Con- 
federates. 

1874, Dec, 17. General Assembly ap|)ointed Governor Houston, Levi W, 

Lawler, and T. B. Betliea a committee to ascertain the 
debt of the State and to report a plan for its licjuidation 
and adjustment. Exact debt found to be $30,037,563. 

1875, Mar. 19. General Assembly Act submitted to popular vote the ques- 

tion of a Constitutional Convention. 

1875, Aug. 3. Popular election favored a Constitutional Convention. 

1875, Sept. 6-Oct. 2. Constitutional Convention, in session at Montgomery, 
restored biennial sessions of the General Assembly and 
limited the term of sessions to fifty days ; fixed members' 
pay at $4 a day, and made president of the senate next 
in succession to the governor. 

1875, Nov. 16. People ratify the Constitution of 1875, which became oper- 

ative on December 6. 

1876, Apr. 3. Great rain and wind storm throughout Alabama. Rain 

considered the heaviest that ever fell in Alabama. 
1876, Oct. — . Alabama and Chattanooga Eailroad sold at public outcry, 
1876, Ten electoral votes cast for Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas 

A. Hendricks. 

1878. Violent yellow fever epidemic. 

1879. Jan. 15. State Bar Association organized. 

1880. The Greenback party, in active opposition to Democrats. 
1880. Ten electoral votes' cast for Winfield S. Hancock, and 

William H. English, democrats. 

1880, Nov. 23. Alice furnace No. 1, in Birmingham, went into blast. 

1881, Feb. 10. Industrial and normal school for negroes established at 

Tuskegee. 

1881, Feb. 26. State railroad commission established. 

1882. Alabama State Teachers' Association formed. 
1882. State normal school established at Jacksonville. 

1882. East and west railroad linked Cartersville, Georgia, and 

Pell Citv. Alabama. 

1883, Jan. — . Defalcation of State Treasurer Isaac H. Vincent discovered. 
1883. Anniston and Sheffield founded. 

1883, Feb. 23. State Department of Agriculture created. 

1SS4. Birmingham Mineral Railroad opened to traffic. 

1884, Ten electoral votes cast for Grover Cleveland and Thomas 

A. Hendricks. 

1885, Sept. 30. Confederate :Monnment Association incorporated. 

1886, Immense freshets in spring and summer. 

1887, Aprill2. Bessemer founded. 

1887. The followimj railroads opened to travel: Alabama Mid- 

land, Birmingliam and Atlantic, Kansas City, Memphis 
and Birmingham, Mobile and Birmingham. 

1888. Yellow fever in Decatur. 

1888. Ten electoral votes cast for Grover Cleveland and Allen 

G. Thurman. 



1889, 


Feb. 28. 


1880, 


Dec. 8. 


1890. 
1892. 
1892. 




1893. 




1893. 
1894, 
1896, 


June-Sept. 
Oct. 12. 


1896, 


Juiy-Dec. 



APPENDIX. 269 

1888. Savannah and Western (Central of Georgia) Railway opened 

to Birmingham. 
Legi.slatiu'e pensions maimed Confederate soldiers and the 

widows of Confederate soldiers. 
Hawes' riot at Kiriningham. Thirteen persons killed by 

posse under sheriff Joseph S. Smitli, to protect from mob 

violence Richard Hawes, who had murdered his wife and 

two daughters. 
East Lake Atheuffium established. 

Co-education inaugurated at Alabama Polytechnic Institute. 
Eleven electoral votes cast for Grover Cleveland and Adlai 

E. Stevenson. 
Hon. Hilary A. Herbert appointed Secretary of the Navy 

by President Grover Cleveland. 
Financial panic. 

. Strike by coal miners of North Alabama ; ten men killed. 
Alabama Girls' Industrial School at Montevallo opened to 

students. 
Seventy-five thousand tons of iron shipped from Alabama 

to foreign ports. This initiated export of iron from 

Alabama. 

1896. Eleven electoral votes cast for William Jennings Bryan and 

Arthur Sewell. 

1897, Feb. 3. General Assembly established otiice of State Tax Com- 

missioner. 

1897, Feb. 16. General Assembly appointed chief mine inspector, re- 
quested examination of mine bosses, standard scales, 
safety-lamps, ventilation, maps, and care of those injured 
by accidents. 

1897, July 24. Birmingham rolling mills make successful experiment in 
manufacture of steel. 

1897, Dec. 27. Cahawba bridge disaster : train went through bridge and 
twenty-seven people were killed. 

1897. Alabama shipped 223,000 tons of iron to foreign ports. 

1898, Apr. 28. Governor Johnston called for volunteers for the Spanish 

American war. 

1898. Low price of cotton caused widespread distress and dis- 

content. 

1898, Dec. 7. Confederate Monument on Capitol Hill unveiled. 

1898, Dec. 16. General Assembly voted to hold a Constitutional conven- 
tion. 

1898, Dec. 17. Governor Johnston approved the act for a Constitutional 

convention. 

1899, Feb. 23. Legislature voted $3000 to buy land and erect buildings 

for a Boys' Industrial School. 
1399, Mar. 18. Primaries for delegates to Constitutional convention. 

1899. Governor Johnston called special session of the General As- 

sembly, and secured repeal of bill for Constitutional 
convention on May 10. 

1900, Nov — . General Assem1)ly voted for to submit Constitutional con- 

vention to the people. 

1900. Eleven electoral votes cast for William Jennings Bryan 

and Adlai E. Stevenson. 

1901, INIar. 25. About 10 a. m., fearful tornado in Birmingham. 

1901, May 21-Sept. 3. Constitutional convention in session in Montgomery. 
1901, June 11. Governor William J. Samford died in Tuskaloosa; William 
Dorsey Jelks succeeded to office of governor. 



Jj o 



OS ^ S 



<i^ ^ r*^ -e c ~ > ';n > cs <^ ^ -^^ -§ 
« u ^ t^ ziS s !-. tcc;;^ 13 > o fl 



o 



p ^J <u +J 



h^ aOc»fcM ^ w o 




^ ;^ 

.^ S of S "Sb'S. d~ 

O^ bC^H Cr^ 3 



£; ^ p o "S ^ =s =3 tH o 



U 



5g 









•^ = P 












£3 ^. bij c oS ' 





, — ^— > 






d 




■—■' — . 






















OS 


CO %-, 














o 


03 


o 




"3 OS 


a 

cS 


?2 


oi 

a 
% 

< 

o 

03 

CO 

I 

G 












Indian name. 

j Senator Abraham Baldwin, 

I Georgia. 

Gov. James Barbour, of Virgini 

Gov. William Wyatt Bibb. 


1 

o 

"S 

O 

d 

a 


OS 

a 

< 

o 
^' 


Capt. Wm. Butler, of Alabama. 
John C. Calhoun, of South Car 
Henry C. Chambers, of Alabam 
Indian tribe. 

Judge Wm. P. Chilton, of Alab 
Indian tribe. 


hn Clarke, of Georgia. 

Clay, of Kentucky. 

It. R. Cleburne, of Arka 

hn Coffee, of Alabama. 

and Levi Colbert. 

word. 

tribe. 

Leonard W. Covington 

yland. 


Cullman, of Alabama, 
muel Dale, of Alabama 
alias, 
hann DeKalb. 


C3 

a 

_c3 
< 
O 

oT 
o 


> 

OS 

a 

1 


o 




o 
O 


e4 


Gov. Jo 
Henry 
Gen. Pi 
Gen. Jo 
George 
Indian 
Indian 
f Gen. 
1 Mar 


G 
< 


John G 
Gen. Sa 
A.J. D 
Gen. Jo 


< 

1 

1-5 


G 
_cS 

'S 

G 


P4 


°0 ci 


^3 . 










^i . .^* .OD^j . 


i 










O 


2 1 


^^ 




i 


5^^^ 


^^ 




OOOC^CO 


?^ 


■X 


§ 
























^ c1 


2.C 


t^ 


lO" 


^^^'^ 


8g5StC^-?^oS2 ^" 


c^ 


c) c-i c3i a> 


lO" 


o- 


i^ 


^ ^ 


OX2 


Xi 


u 


a O O r 


O O O O O U^J2 o o 


> 


G ^-^ G 


^ 


o 


o 


^ 


►9 S 


a; 0! 




a> 








^&&^ 






5? 


^ P 


WU< 


h 


P 


ppppppf^fep p 


'A 


ta 


« 


P 


12; 






J, 


.14 


III! 


11 


larke 

hiy 

leburne .... 
offee ...... 

olbert* 

onecuh . ... 
oosa 

ovingtons . . . 


G 


ill 


o 


a 

03 






:= rf 


03 .-ti 








jssi 


t, 


^^s.s. 










<< « 


ma; 


m 


m 


muooooooooo^o o 


o 


oPPP 


W 


N 


w 



270 



6 


^>: 


£ 

o 


ville. 
sboro. 
ingham. 
on. 

■nee. 


1 


oj 


fi 


^' 






2 

a; 


S 




OJ 


II 






c 






OS 


1 


5 


3 


i 


C 

S 


X2 

1 






— A__ 




^.-A.— 


^_^ 














^^^^_ 




fl 




. 


a 


c 


rr- 


c 












o 




o 




.2 
1 


.2 
1 


3 


1 


0) 




1 


50 




o 




"3 3^ 




Oj 


CD 


03 


M 


0> 


2 










O 












Oi 


^ 


o 






0) 










-^.M 




>> 




^ 




bf 




o 


CI 








^ o 




cu 


i % 


g 


Ph 


2 

o 








« 






15 




o 


o S^ 




2" 




f^ 


X 




O 
c 




"Ti^ 


q3 
1 

2 
3 
'w 
'3 


rion, Pickens, 
tiickasaw and 
of 1816. 
Tee, Dale, and 
rengo and Tus 


1 1 11 


3 


ci 


2; ce 

■lis 

.2--« a> 


c 
.2 

i 

o 
.id 


ill 

lis 

s =* ^ 

,i«!'5 OS 

.28 cS 




il 

2'.i 

P 

1-5 


«o 


o "S 


g 


OrCrii «0 


CJ 


O 


c;) 


3 


n 


.d 


p 


o 


%Z^ 


-u^ 


-~^ 


-QCMP^w- 








-PQ 


CJ 




.-o 


H 




















^•— 






,.^. 


...^ ^_ 


^ 


n. Jean de La Fayette, 
enjamin Franklin, of Pennsyl- 
vania. 
iss city. 
n. Nathaniel Greene, of Georgia. 


p 

s 

«t-. 

2 


0) ^ 

ii's. g 

!l -1 

t* > ^ =^ =« 

^ ?>«c 2 ^ 

a^ E: a; cs ^ 

.2^2^ ^ 


4^ 

c 

o 

1 

1-1 

!5 


'2 
> 

1 

1 

2 


I 

2 

O 

o 


of 

£ 

C 

c 

ci 
'O 

fl 
s: 

o 


j5 

o 

o 
o 


.2 

*s 

> 

.1 


o 

01 


;3 «tH 

2 ^ 
5 .5 


aipq 






OS <D43 . O 




a< 


^ 


S^ 






u 


o 


o 




oLU 


OQ 


OhOHh:] o 


>-5 


O 


fe 




1-5 


t^ 








CO 05 


t> 


05 aJ oi • 










<m' 


. 




CO 
























00 






«s 


c^ 










^ 






































































S5 o 


?,S 


s 


;^ ;j, ri -t< o 


!C 


lO" 


eo" 


^ 


CO 




•.£■ 


s 


oT 




« ^ 


o o 


fj 


O O O.Q .Q 


X2 


o 


42 


ri 


o 


o 


X5 


Xi 


G 








03 

1-5 










c3 

1-5 










(33 
1-5 




fi ;:^ 


fiQ 


PQQfq P:h 


fj^i 


tt 


li* 


« 


M 


N 


t>:< 






0) 2 

1) Sh 

CO 




' ' ' ' ,2 

llfll 


O 
Zi 


3 


2 

;3 


ii 
1 


i 


1 




O 


.G 


a; 



o3.G 

ci o 

C 03"^ 

g 5 S 

O 



o o 



iimi 

oc kJ Si? S =« 

Sw op 2 o 

o 22 •" "^ " o 
CJ rt M g; ci 

<ii S Z.2o.S 

^^ oj.doofP 

<u t, <L) .12 r^ :? 
oS'3?"Sp 

Si^ O l^ << o 
-^^ ^-''2 o 

33-^ (U go 5 
c3 ro c3 >-^ eg 

r - - :?; tf , 

'3'3'3xi u'S 
2 s G .-^ n, a 



;_ n s-i ." '.lo j_ t 

000<1^Cad- 



S£ 



-O 03 

^2 



2 


,. 


<D 


^i'TS 


S 


Sbc 


Tl 


^3 


0) 


^■s 




Hi" 




S 


c3 


.2^. 



O o3>-^ O 



271 



O O :- r; 






-i HP H 






(U 

3 
C 

o 

o 

I 

< 

w 
< 

< 
o 

CO 

W 
h 

o 
o 

o 

w 
o 

h 
en 

< 
h 



H 


S 




o 


> 




Ph 


-o 


o 


s 


H 


eg 






pi 




PJ 

H 


O 


H 


O^ 






M 


o^ 


? 


Vr^ 


S 


c ^ 






■=• "» 5R 
2 a> i> 



T. O 

?g^53 .COTS 



OCR 



H t^k 



-^ C 5^ <U OJ 



=e ;=; ;: ^ S ^ 



o!^ H 



Woe 






O" CD 

ceo 

o ^ ^ 



P tc (H • 'Ci 



ax 

1-1 C 
1-^ 






<=■ c d • 






-^cs^e^t- 



•t! ^- ''^ o -= £^ <1^ 



OOv-v^OccOv-. 



2 OS 

a3 2 r: fl 



CS t< ^1 

fl o o 



-^ > CJ 



Ol 



felgl 



100 00 ?1aOOD '^ r-t CC ODQO . 
'^-^ rH aO'-l'-l ""^ OC' i-H rHT-H OO 



cCt3 



C^ 






CC«GO^ 



i^c'Jt^^^^t^c-i ;;-^i— i 



►^ ft f^ 



o o ooo >,Q o oo;a 
ft ft flftft Iz; P^ ft ftft PM 



O Pi 

ft*? 



ftpM 



-;:S^ fcp?- p. 



a> o 






. ;y .^ .rH ^w — .^j rn ^ Cw w — ' "-^ "-ri. "-^ ►-^ 



be be 

OO 



272 



GOVERNORS OF THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY, THE ALA- 
BAMA TERRITORY, AND THE STATE OF ALABAMA. 

The Mississippi Territory. 

Prom To 

Winthrop Sargent of Massachusetts 1798 1801 

William Charles Cole Claiborne of Tennessee . . 1801 1805 

Robert Williams of North Carolina ...... 1805 1809 

David Holmes of Virginia 1809 1817 

The Alabama Territory. 

William Wyatt Bibb of Georgia Mar. 1817 Nov. 1819. 

The State of Alabama. 

William Wyatt Bibb of Autauga Nov.^ 1819 July 1820. 

Thomas Bibb of Limestone July 1820 Nov. 1821. 

Israel Pickins of Greene Nov. 1821 Nov. 1825. 

John Murphy of Monroe Nov. 1825 Nov. 1829. 

Gabriel Moore of Madison Nov. 1829 Mar. 1831. 

Samuel B. Moore of Jackson :Mar. 1831 Nov. 1831. 

John Gayle of Greene Nov. 1831 Nov. 1835. 

Clement Comer Clay of Madison .... Nov, 1835 July 1837. 

Hugh McVay of Lauderdale July 1837 Nov. 1837. 

Arthur Pendleton Bagby of Monroe . . Nov. 1837 Nov. 1841. 

Benjamin Fitzpatrick of Autauga .... Nov. 1841 Nov. 1845. 

Joshua Lanier Martin of Tuscaloosa . . . Nov. 1845 Nov, 1847. 

Reuben Chapman of Madison Nov. 1847 Nov. 1849. 

Henry Watkins Collier of Tuscaloosa . . Nov. 1849 Nov. 1853. 

John Anthony Winston of Sumter .... Nov. 1853 Nov. 1857. 

Andrew Barry Moore of Perry Nov. 1857 Nov. 1861, 

John Gill Shorter of Barbour Nov. 1861 Nov. 1863. 

Thomas Hill Watts of Montgomery . . . Nov, 1863 Apr, 1865. 

1 Governor Bibb was inaugurated as governor at Huntsville on November 9, 
1819, although the State was not formally admitted into the Union until Decem- 
ber 14, 1819. 

18 273 



274 APPENDIX. 

[Interregnum of two months after the surrender of the military de- 
partment of the Confederate government, of which Alabama formed a 
part, to the Federal authorities.] 

From To 

Lewis E. Parsons ^ of Talladega .... June 1865 Dec. 1865. 

Robert Miller Patton of Lauderdale . . . Dec. 1865 July 1868. 

William H. Smith of Randolph July 1868 Dec 1870. 

Robert Burns Lindsay of Colbert Dec. 1870 Nov. 1872. 

David P. Lewis of Madison Nov. 1872 Nov. 1874. 

George Smith Houston Nov. 1874 Nov. 1878. 

Rufus W. Cobb of Shelby Nov. 1878 Dec. 1882. 

p:dward Asbury O'Neal of Lauderdale . . Dec. 1882 Dec. 1886. 

Thomas Seay of Hale Dec. 1886 Dec. 1890. 

Thomas Goode Jones of Montgomery . . .Dec. 1890 Dec. 1894. 

William C. Gates of Henry Dec. 1894 Dec. 1896. 

Joseph F. Johnson of Jefferson Dec. 1896 Dec. 1900. 

William J. Sanford of Lee Dec. 1900 June 1901. 

William D. J elks of Barbour June 1901 



Appointed provisional governor of Alabama by President Johnson. 



NDEX. 



Abolitionists, 96 

Academy for the Blind, 179 

Achusi, Bar of, 13 

Adams County, Miss., 205 

Adams, Fort, 207 

Adams, John, 205 

Adams, John Quiucy, 118, 229 

Adams, William L., 210 

Adams, General Wirt, 115 

Aiken, S. C, 129 

Alabama admitted to Statehood, 210 

Alabama adopts 13th Amendment, 

138 
Alabama Bryce Insane Hospital, 178 
Alabama Conference Female College, 

160 
Alabama Great Southern Eailwav, 

190 
Alabama in Literature, 234-259 
Alabama made a military district, 

139 
Alabama Medical Association, 181, 182 
Alabama organized, 209 
Alabama Platform, 95 
Alabama Rivers, 184, 185 
Alabama Territory, 205 
Alabama Town, 200 
Alabamas, 15, 16 
Alibamons, 12 

Allen, General William W., 116, 126 
Allen, John and Robert, 58 
Arabrister, 55 
American Colonies, 19 
American Colonization Societies, 106 
American Republic, 20 
Anderson, D. C, 26 
Appalachian Mountain System, 185 
Appalachicola River, 55 
Appomattox, 24, 113 
Arbuthnot, 55 
Areola, 70 
Arias, 12 
Arkansas, 166 
Arkansas River, 66 



Army Records, 113 

Arrow, 37 

Athenaeum, 193 

Athens, 115 

Athens Female College, 160 

Atlanta, 113 

Atlanta, Battle of, 117, 129 

Atlantic Ocean, 14 

Auburn, 154 

Augusta, Ga., 30 

Augustine, St., 29 

Austin, Captain E., 45 

Austin, Jeremiah, 45, 46 

Autosse, 53 

Averysboro, 130 

Avondale, 193 

Bacchus, 67 

Bagby, Governor A. P., 76, 214 

Baker, Alpheus, 109 

Baldwin County, 208 

Baldwin, Joseph G., 239, 240 

Banks, M., 79 

Baptist Church, 175 

Barancas, 56 

Barbour County, 109 

Barnard, F. A. P., 159, 240 

Barr, R. N., 142 

Barton Academy, 152 

Barton's Station, 114 

Battle, Alfred, 216 

Battle, General Cullen A., 116 

Beall, Lieutenant, 67 

Beasley, Major Daniel, 35, 36 

Belgium, 100 

Bellamy, Mrs. E. W., 26, 251 

Benton, Thomas H., 48, 50 

Bentonville, 113, 130 

Bessemer, 193 

Betts, I. H., 223 

Bibb, Thomas, 210, 211 

Bibb, William W., 209, 210 

Bienville, 14-18 

Biloxi, 14 

275 



276 



INDEX. 



Biloxi Bay, 13 

Bingham, Arthur, 223 

Bird, William, 90 

Birmingham, 189-196 

Birmingham District, 192 

Birmingham Seminary, 193 

Black Belt, 196, 197 

Black Code. 17 

Bla(-k Creek, 133 

Black Warrior Elver, 61, 62 

Blakeley, 23, 24 

Blount, Barbara, 62 

Blount County, 132 

Blount, Governor William, 50-52, 63 

Boat Yard, 151 

Bolles, J. A., 120 

Bonaparte, Napoleon, 27, 66, 70, 206 

Booth, J. Wilkes, 136 

Bouchelle, C. D., 79 

Boiu-bon, 70 

Bourke, Captain, 67 

Bowles, ^yilliam A., 30, 31 

Boys' Industrial School and Farm, 

182, 183 
Bragg, General Braxton, 126-128 
Brant and Fuller, 242 
Brazil, 101 

Breckenridge, J. C, 97, 230 
Brewer, Willis, 239, 242 
Bridgeport, 127 
Britain, Great, 18, 203 
Briton, 21 

Brooks, Preston Smith, 139 
Brooks, Senator, of New York, 138 
Broun, Dr. William Le Eoy, 154 
Brown, John, 97, 107 
Brownlow. Colonel, 129 
Bryce, Dr. Peter, 176-178 
Buchanan, Admiral F., 23 
Buell, General, 126 
Bugbee, Francis, 156 
Bulger, General M. J., 219 
Burke. Edmund, 94 
Burn side, General, 127, 128 
Burnt Corn, 35, 44, 63 
Burr, Aaron, 207, 209 
Butler, Sen., of South Carolina, 139 
Byrd, Judge William M., 156, 229 

Cadillac, 16 

Cfesar, a negro, 46 

Cahawba, 73, 210 

Calabee (ca-la'bee) Creek, 53 

Calhoun. John C, 48, 73, 76, 94-96, 

101-106 
Caller, Colonel James, 44 
Campbell, Colonel, 115 



Campbell, G. W., 56 
Campbell, John A., 26, 88 
Canada, 14, 16 
Canadian, 13 

Canby, General E. R. S., 23 
Canoe Fight, 45-47 
Cantey, General James, 116 
Carlisle U. S. Cavalry School, 125 
Carolina, North, 57, 72, 73 
Carolina, South, 129, 205 
Carondelet, Governor. 31 
Carson, Colonel Joseph, 45, 46 
Casey, Dr. T., 151 
Cass, Lewis, 77, 95, 213 
Catharine, 171 



i Catholic, 18 

Catholic Cemetery, 124 

Centinel, Mobile, 256 
j Cereal Belt, 186 

Cervera, Admiral, 226, 227 

Chambers County, 116 

Chambers, Dr. Henry and Colonel 
Hal, 211 

Chambers, Joseph, 58, 60 

Chancellorsville, Battle of, 117 

Chandler, Daniel, 26 

Chapman, Governor E., 76, 215 

Chapman, E. T., 120 

Charleston, 27, 28 

Charlotte, Fort, 19 

Charlotte, Queen, 19 

Chase, Salmon P., 96 

Chattahoochee, 19, 28, 205 

Chattanooga, 127, 128, 132 

Chaudron, Mrs., 26 

Cherbourg, France, 123 

Cherokee County, 9, 28. 39. 132 

Cherokees, 208, 213, 214 

Chickamauga, 117, 127 

Chickasaw Bluff, 12, 29 

Chickasaws, 12, 18, 35, 39, 207, 208 

Chilton, William P., 229 

China, 194 

Choctaw County, 165, 184 

Choctaws, 35, 39, 58, 59, 206 

Chunnanugea Chattee, 200 

Cicero, 100, 172 

Cimbri, 49 

Claiborne, Fort, 63 

Claiborne, General F. H., 36, 37, 45 

Claiborne, William C. C, 206, 208 

Clanton, James H., 117 

Clark, Daniel, 207 

Clark, Thomas H., 24? 

Clark, Willis G., 152, 156, 242 

Clarke County. 12, 44, 45, 166 

Clarke, J. S., 108 



INDEX, 



211 



Clarke, Richard H., 26, 225 

Clausel. Couut Bertrand, 70 

Clay, Clemeut Comer, 80, 213, 214 

Clar, Clement Claiborne, 88, 136 

Clay, Henry, 48, 73, 91, 101 

Clavsville, 114 

Clayton, H. D., 112, 117, 157, 223 

Clayton, Mrs. V. V., 257 

Cleburne, General Patrick, 128 

Clemens, Jere., 256 

Clingman. Thomas L., 93 

Cluis, J. J., 70 

Coal Fields, 191 

Cobb, Howell, 111 

Cobb, R. W., 222 

Cochran, Dr. Jerome, 180-182, 242 

Cocke, General, 51, 53 

Coffee, General John, 50-54 

Coffey, Colonel John R., 215 

Cold Harbor, 113, 117 

Colbert Countv, 114 

Colbert Ferrv, 61 

Colbert Shoals, 211 

Coleman, A. A., 108 

Colfax, Schuyler. 1.38 

Collier, Governor H. W., 216 

Collier, Mary, 216 

Compromise of 1850, 96 

Coude, Fort, 15, 19 

Confederacy, 24, 97, 126 

Confederate Congress, 128 

Confederate States, 22, 98, 124 

Connecticut, 189 

Connor, Commodore, 119 

Constitution, 96 

Constitution, United States, 96, 106 

Constitution, U. S. warship, 9.> 

Convention, Baltimore, 95 

Convention, Charleston, 95-97 

Convention, National Democratic, 95 

Convict System, 179 

Cooper, William, 88 

Coosa, 9, 10 

Coosa River, 9, 16, 34, 114 

Corinth, 126 

Cornells, Jim, 36 

Coronse Borealis, 161 

Cortez, 7 

Cosme, St., 16 

Costa, 9 

Cotton Belt, 186, 196-201 

Cotton Giu Port, 62 

Council of Nations, Grand, 28 

Council, W. H., 149 

Courses of Study, 169, 170 

Court-House Legislature, 143 

Court of St. James, 98 



Coweta, 28, 30 
Cox, S. S., 93 
Craighead, Erwin, 26 
Crawford, William H., 69 
Crawley, Mrs., 63 
Creeks, 16, 28-30, 61, 207. 212 
Crenshaw, W. H., 156 
Crittenden Compromise, 108 
Crittenden, General, 127 
Crook, General, 127 
Crook, James, 224 
Crowe, Dr. G. B., 227 
Croxton, General, 115, 156 
Crozat, Antoine, 16, 17 
Cuba, 7, 76 

Cumberland River, 58 
Gumming, Miss Kate, 248 
Curry, J. L. M., 257 
Cusseta Treaty, 212 

Dale, Samuel, 42-49, 68, 210 

Dale County, 49 

Dale's Ferry, 48 

Daleville, 49 

Dallas County, 76 

Dallas, George M., 80 

Dancing Rabbit Creek, Treaty of, 41, 
212 

Dargan, E. S., 26 

Dauphin Island, 13 

Davenport, J. G., 79 

Davion, 16 

Davis, President Jefferson, 58, 97, 
108, 129, 136, 223 

Davis, Nicholas, 212, 215 

Dawson, N. H. R., 223 

Dawson, R. H., 179 

Deaf and Dumb Institute, 178 

Deans, G. B., 225 

Deas, General Zach. C, 22 
I De Ay lion, 8 
I De Bardeleben, H. F., 188 

Decatur, 84. 132, 186, 196 
I Decatur, Fort, 47 

Deerhound, 123 

De Leon, T. C, 26, 248, 249 
I Democratic Party, 107 
i Demopolis, 64, 69, 71, 203 
I Demosthenes, 100, 172 
! Demosthenes of the South, 89 

De Narvaez, 8 

Dennis, St., 16 
I Department of Archives and History, 

235 
I Deposit, Fort, 51 

Desnouettes, Count, 69, 70 
I De Soto, 7-12, 239 



j:/ 



INDEX. 



De Sotoville, 148 
Dexter, Andrew, 200 
Uexter, Mount, 58, 60 
Dibbrell, 114 
Dill, T. J., 163 
Dinsmore, Silas, 58, 60, 68 
Dix, Miss Dorothea L., 175, 176 
Dodge, General, 114, 132 
Douglas, Stephen A., 74 
Dow, Lorenzo, 174, 208 
Dow, Peggy, 174 
Du Bose, John W., 240, 241 
Du Bose, Miss O. C, 165 
Duffy, William, 72 
Dunn, William D., 26 
Dunsmore, 30 
Durant, Benjamin, 27 

Earle, Elias, and Dr. E., 90 

Easlev, U. S. Commodore, 43 

East Lake, 193 

Econachaca, the " Holy Ground," 37 

Ector's North Carolinians and Tex- 

ans, 23 
Edmonson, Mr., 63 
El Caney, 131 
Ellicott, Andrew, 20, 205 
Ellicott's Stone, 20 
Ely, William, 190 
Elyton, 190 

Elyton Land Company, 191 
Enierson, E. W., 97 
Emmet, Johu P., 160 
England, 18, 19, 21, 28, 97, 194, 204 
English, 13-21 
Ensley, 193 
Episcopalians, 175 
Europe, 66 
Europeans, 17 
Ewing, W. T., 223 

Faneuil Hall, 97 
Farmer, Major Eobert, 18 
Farmers' Alliance, 223 
Farragut, D. G., 23, 218 
Federals, 23-25 
Figh, George M., 157 
Fillmore, President Millard, 76 
Fisher, Colonel, 68 
Fitts, James H., 156, 157 
Fitzpatrick, Governor, 87, 215 
Flash, Henry L., 246 
Florence, 114, 186, 196 
Florida, 7-9, 203, 204 
Florida, West, 18, 19 
Flournov, General, 45 
Floyd, General, 37, 53 



Forrest, General N. B., 114, 115, 132 

Forsyth, John, 26, 256 

Foster, J. T., 156 

Foucat, 16 

Fowler, William H., 113 

France, 18, 28, 97, 204, 206 

Francis, the Prophet, 35, 43 

Franklin, Admiral, 117 

Fredericksburg, 113, 117 

Freedmen's Bureau, 139, 141 

Freeman, Z. F., 156 

Free Soilers, 95, 96 

French, 13-18, 69, 174 

French Association, 69 

French Colony, 66-71 

Gadsden, 133, 196 

Gaines, Dr., 26 

Gaines, Fort, 23, 112 

Gaines, General E. P., 60, 62, 68 

Gaines, Mrs. E. P., 63 

Gaines, George S., 48, 50, 57-65, 68 

Gaines, James, 57, 58 

Gaines, Judge Eeuben, 167 

Gaines, Young, 68 

Gainesville, 64 

Gallatin, Tenn., 58 

Galphinton, 29 

Galvez, 19, 204 

Garfield, General James A., 102, 132 

Garland, Dr. L. C, 158 

Garrett, William, 242 

Garrison, William Lloyd, 97 

Gayarr^, Charles, 207 

Gayle, John, 212, 213 

George III., 19, 73 

Georgia, 9, 28, 29, 99, 205, 218 

Gettysburg, 113, 218 

Ghent, Treaty of, 21 

Gibson, A. M., 156 

Gibson's Louisianians, 23 

Gi Ira ore. Dr., 26 

Girls, capture Federals, 133 

Glidden, George E., 252 

Goldthwaite, Judge H., 26 

Gonzalez, Captain, 116 

Goodwyn. A. T., 225 

Gordon, General J. B., 116 

Gorgas, General Josiah, 116, 157 

Gracie, General, 22 

Graison, Eobert, 53 

Grand Council at Tookabatcha, 43 

Granger, General Gordon, 24 

Grant, J. F., 220 

Grant, U. S., 128, 141, 143 

Grav, A. J., 148 

Gray, Eev. B. D., 167 



INDEX. 



279 



Greeley, Horace, 101 
Green Academy, 152 
Greeue County, 12, 115 
Greensboro, 218 
Greenville Mountaineer, 90 
Greenville, S. C, 89 
Grouchy, Marshall, 70 
Grouch}-, Victor, 70 
Gulf Port, 26, 222 

Hagan, General James, 22, 126 

Halbert and Ball, 257 

Hale, Senator from New Hampshire, 

96 
Hamilton, Alexander, 105 
Hamilton, Peter J., 26, 252 
Hamilton, Colonel, of Detroit, 204 
Hannibal, 229 

Hannon, General M. W., 126 
Harris, Dr. E. P., 148 
Harris, Sampson W., 93 
Harris, U. S. Commissioner, 43 
Harrisburg, 100 
Harrison, Mrs. Belle R., 251 
Harrison, William H., 92, 100 
Hartford Convention, 92 
Hatteras, Gunboat, 122 
Hawkins, Benjamin, 43, 47, 207 
Hawkins, Fort, 47 
Hawthorne, Eev. J. B., 94 
Hayes, President E. B., 101 
Haynes, Colonel. 63 
Havs, Charles, 222 
Henley, Dr. A. T., 179 
Henry, James, 161 
Henry, Lemuel, 61 
Hentz, Mrs. Caroline Lee, 238 
Herbert, H. A., 242 
Hermitage, The, 52 
Herndon, Thomas H., 22, 220, 222 
Hickman, Joseph, 190 
Hillabee Indians, 53, 54 
Hilliard, H. W., 95, 99-103 
Hillraan Hospital, 193 
Hitchcock, Henry, 26, 73 
Hobson, R. P., 226, 227 
Hobson Subordinates, 226 
Hodgson, Joseph, 240 
Holmes, Governor David, 21, 48, 209 
Holtzclaw's Brigade, 23 
Holtzclaw, J. T., 116 
Holv Angels Academy, 193 
Holy Ground, 37, 38 
Homostubbee, 59, 60 
Hooper, J. J., 116, 240 
Hopiee Tustennuggee, 35 
Hopkins, Mark, 164 



Horseshoe Bend, 54 

Houston County, 205 

Houston, George S., 219, 220 

Houston, Sam, 55 

Howard College, 160, 163 

Hudson Bay, 13 

Hudson Port, 113 

Huger Battery, 23, 24 

Humes, General, 128 

Humphries, Dr. C, 151 

Hunt, John, 208 

Hunter, Mr., 77 

Hunter, E. M. T., 160 

Huntsville, 50, 51, 73. 186, 196, 208, 

210 
Huse, Colonel Caleb, 156 

Iberville, 13, 15 
Illinois, 203 
India Company, 17 
Indian Troubles, 214 
Irwinsville, Ga., 136 
Isabel Doiia, 12 
Island No. 10, 113 

Jackson, Andrew, 21, 37, 38, 47, 50, 
56, 63, 64, 209, 229 

Jackson, Mrs., 52 

Jackson County, 116 

Jackson, Fort, 47, 55 

Jackson, " Stonewall," 116 

Japan, 194 

j Jefferson County, 189 
' Jefferson, Thos., 105, 106, 160, 206, 208 

Jelks, W. D., 228 

Jemison, Eobert, 108, 156 

Jesup, General, 214 

Jews, 18 

Johnson, Andrew, 25, 124, 136, 138 

Johnson, C. B., 135 

Johnson, Prof. J. Hal, 178 

Johnson, R. B., 113 

Johns, St., 29 

Johnston, J. E., 113, 124, 128, 130 

Johnston, J. F., 223, 225, 226 

Johnston, Miss Marv, 256, 257 

Johnston, Mrs. E. D., 183 

Johnstone, Governor George, 19 

Jones, General E. C, 157 

Jones, Governor T. G., 224 

Jones Valley, 191 

Judge, Thomas J., 156 

Keaksaege, 123 

Kell, Lieutenant, 123 

Kellv, General John H., 126, 128 

Kelly's Ford, 116 



280 



INDEX. 



Kennedy, Captain, 36 

Kentucky, 19, 97 

Ketchum, Dr. George A., 26, 181 

Key, Francis Scott, 213 

King Cotton, 188 

King, Porter, 156 

King, William R., 72, 77, 230 

King, William W., 79 

Klinck, J. G., 200 

Knighton, Captain J. H., 148 

Knox, Sarah, 58 

Knoxville, 128 

Kolb, R. F., 223, 224 

Kossuth, Louis, 255 

Ku Klux Klau, 146, 147 

L'Allemand, 70 

L'Epinay, 16 

La Fayette, 48, 211 

La Grange, 116 

La Salle, 13, 14 

Laird & Sons, 121 

Lamochattee, 34 

Lancaster, Mr., 123 

Lane, Joseph, 97 

Langdon, C. C, 26, 256 

Lanier, Sidney and Clifford, 243 

Lauderdale County, Miss., 48 

Lauderdale County, Ala., 115 

Lawrence, Major, 21 

Law's Mississippi Scheme, 17 

Leadbetter, General D., 116 

Lee, General R. E., 24, 116, 223 

Lee, W. D., 179 

Leipsic, 168 

Leopold, King, 100 

Le Vert, Mrs. O. W., 26, 239 

Lewin, Charles, 85 

Lewis, B. B., 157 

Lewis, D. H., 68, 76 

Lewis, David P., 142, 143, 220 

Liddell, General, 24 

Lincoln, Abraham, 97, 108, 112, 136 

Lincoyer, 52 

Linden, 70 

Lindsay, R. B., 142, 220 

Lipscomb, A. S., 26 

Little Bear Creek, 114 

Liverpool, 25 

Livingston Normal College, 180 

Loachapoka, 114 

Lomax, T., 113 

Long, B. M., 224 

Long, General, 115 

Long, George, 160 

Longstreet, General, 116, 127 

Lookout Mountain, 185 



Loudon, 127 

Louisiana, 16-20, 203, 204 

Louisiana Purchase, 20, 207 

Louis, Fort,- 14 

Louis XIV., 16 

Louis XV., 17 

Louis, St., 18 

Louisville and Nashville Railway, 190 

Low, Mr., 122 

Loyal League, 127 

Lupton, Dr. N. T., 157 

Lyon, F. S., 88 

McClung, J. W., 215 

McCook, 115, 128 

McCorvey, T. C, 253 

McDonough, 67 

McGillivray, 27 

McGillivray, Alexander, 27-33, 34 

McGillivray, Jeannet, 27 

McGillivray, Sophia, 27 

Mcintosh Bluff, 207 

Mcintosh, General, 47 

McKee, Colonel John H., 41 

McKinley, John, 212 

McKinley, President, 131 

McKinstrv, 22 

McLeroy, J. M., 223 

McLoud, 67 

McMinnville, 127 

McMullen, R. B., 79 

McPherson, James, 234 

McQueen, Peter, 35, 44 

McRae. 22 

McVay, Hugh, 214 

Macon, Ga., 129 

Macon, Miss., 58 

Madison County, 114, 208 

Madison, Fort, 36, 45 

Madison, President James, 72 

Madrid, 31 

Madrid, Treaty of, 20, 204 

Maffitt, J. N., 23 

Magazine explosion, 25 

Magnolia Grove, 227 

Maldonado, 12 

Malone, Thomas, 61, 63, 68 

Malvern Hill, 113 

Manly, Rev. Basil, 155, 156 

Manly, Miss Louise, 257 

Manning, Amos R., 26 

Marchand, Captain, 27 

Marengo, 12, 70, 166 

Maria Theresa, 227 

Marion Military Institute, 162 

Mar ins, 49 

Marks, St., 29 



INDEX. 



281 



Marshall County, 114 

Martin, J. L., 87, 88, 93, 215 

Massacre Island, 13 

Massey, Dr. John, 162, 165, 167 

Mastiu, Dr., 26 

Maurepas, Fort de, 13 

Maury, D. H., 22, 24 

Maury, Colonel Harry, 113 

MaurV, T. W., 61 

Mauvilla, 10, 11, 15 

Meade, General George, 140 

Meadors, J. C=, 156 

]Medical College of Alabama, 154 

Meek, A. B., 26, 78, 83, 152, 159, 236 

Meek, B. F., 157 

Meek, Dr. Samuel M., 79 

Melleu, Dr. George F., Jr., 167 

Mellen, Prof. George F., Sr., 165 

Mellen, Prof. S. S., 164-173 

Melleu, Mrs. S. S., 171 

Memphis, 12 

Merrimac, 226, 227 

Methodist Church, 175 

Methodist College at Owenton, 193 

Mexican War, 119, 215 

Mexico, 8 

Mexico, Gulf of, 8. 12, 13 

Mil fort, 27, 30, 34 

Milledgeville, 48 

Milledffeville Sale, 200 

Miller, C. A., 142 

Milton's Eve, 94 

Minis, Fort, 35, 38, 50, 63 

Mineral Belt, 186-189 

Missionary Ridge, 128 

Mississippi Basin, 18, 19 

Mississippi River, 12, 19, 58, 67 

Mississippi Territory, 21, 203, 209 

Missouri Compromise, 95, 96 

Mitchell, Fort, 213 

Mitchell, General, 114 

Mobile, 12, 13-26, 29, 64, 84, 166 

Mobile Bay, 13, 21, 23, 67 

Mobile Countv, 21 

Mobile Point," 13, 21 

Mobile River, 14 

Monroe, President James, 209 

Montgomery, 84, 94, 199. 200. 203 

^Montgomery, Major L. P., 55 

Moore, A. B., 108, 112, 216, 217 

Moore, Arthur, 200 

Moore, Gabriel, 209, 212 

Moore, J. T., 135 

Moore, Samuel B., 212 

Moren, Dr. E. H., 142, 220 

Morgan, Colonel, 54 

Morgan County, 114, 132 



Morgan, Fort, 23, 112, 113 

Morgan, J. T., 108, 229-233, 241 

Morro Castle, 226 

Mount Dexter Treaty, 58, 208 

Mudd, Judge William S., 190 

Muller, A. B., 237, 238 

Mumfordville, 126 

Murder Creek, 32 

Murfree, Colonel J. T., 156, 162 

Murfreesboro, 117, 126 

Naples, 73 

Napoleon, 19 

Nashville, 63, 113, 117 

Natchez, 203, 205 

Negroes, 15, 17, 145-150 

New England, 97 

New Hope, 113, 117 

New Mexico, 96 

Newman, Ga., 128 

New Crleans, 17, 21, 31, 47, 58, 203, 

204 
New World, 14, 70 
New York, 97, 180 
New York Treaty, 31 
Nicaragua Canal, 232, 233 
Nieto, 9 
Nile, 67 

Noble, Governor Patrick, 91 
Normal Schools, 153 
North Alabama, 26 
Nott, Dr. J. C, 26, 252 



Gates, William C, 225 

Oce-Oche-Motla, 62, 63 

Ocfuskees, 30 

Ochus, Bay of, 12 

Ockenden, Mrs. I. M. P., 247 

Oconee Lands, 29 

Oconee River, 28, 129 

Ohio, 97 

Ohio River, 58, 61 

Oktibbeha River, 61 

Oliver, Samuel W., 214 

O'Neal, E. A., 222 

Opelika, 115 

Opothleyoholo, 214 

Ordinance, Nullification, 107 

Ordinance, Secession, 105-111 

Oregon Boundary, 101 

Oreto, 23 

Orleans, Duke of, 17 

Orleans, Island of, 18, 203 

Ortiz, Juan, 8, 9 

Osage, 39 

Owen, Dr. Goronwy, 26 



282 



INDEX. 



Owen, Thomas M., 234, 235 
Owens, Hardeman, 213 



Packenham, General, 21 

Paddy, 47 

Pafalaya, 12 

Paine, Bishop Eobert, 162 

Panton, William, 29, 30, 33 

Panton, Leslie & Co., 19 

Panuco, 12 

Parham, Captain, 116 

Paris, 66, 180 

Parker, J. J., 220 

Parker, Dr. William A., 157 

Parmentier, Nicholas S., 66 

Parsons, Enoch, 213 

Parsons, Lewis E., 137, 219 

Paterson, Colonel, 114 

Patton, E. M., 141, 156, 157, 219 

Patton Certificates, 157 

Pearl Eiver, 205 

Peck, S. M., 159, 253, 254 

Pelby, Mr., 238 

Pelham, John, 116 

Pendletons, 58 

Peninsula, 7 

Pensacola, 17, 19, 20, 21, 24, 29, 33, 35 

Perdido Eiver, 20 

Perier, 18 

Perry, B. F., 89 

Perry, W. F., 152 

Peru, 7, 12 

Peter, 171 

Peters, Benjamin, 156 

Petersburg, 113 

Petersburg, St., 73 

Petrie, George, 253 

Philadelphia, 69 

Philadelphia. New, 200 

Philip, 17 

Philippines, 131 

Phillippe, Louis, 75 

Phillis, " Aunt," 171 

Pickens, Andrew, 207 

Pickens, Israel, 211 

Pickering County, 205 

Pickett, A. J., 240 

Pierce, 76 

Pierce, John, 152 

Pierce's Springs. 164 

Pike, Albert, 247 

Pillow, Fort, 113 

Pinckney Eesolutions, 107 

Pinckney, Thomas. 20 

Pinckney, William, 73 

Pltchlyn, John, 61, 62 



Pittsburg, 61 

Pittsburg Landing, 126 

Pizarro, 7, 8 

Poe, E. A., 160 

Point Clear, 124 

Politics, 203-228 

Polk, President J. K., 76, 80 

Pollard, 24 

Pollock, Oliyer, 203 

Pollock-Stephens Institute. 193 

Pontiac, 18 

Pope, Alexander, 208 

Pope, General, 139, 140 

Porter, B. F., 247 

Powell, J. E., 191 

Powers, James K., 158 

Pratt City, 193 

Pratt, Daniel, 188 

Prentiss, General, 126 

Prentiss, S. S., 94 

Presbyterians, 175 

Preston, 58 

Price, Moses, 31 

Price's advertisement, 151 

Puckshennubbee, 59 

Pushmataha, 34, 37-39 

Eaft on Eed Eiver, 67 

Eandolph, John, 106 

Eaoul, Nicholas, 70 

Eeal, Count, 69 

Eeconstruction, 25, 136-144 

Eed Eagle, 38 

Eed Mountain, 191 

Eed Eiver, 67 

Eed Sticks, 54 

Eeforms and Eeformers. 174-183 

Eevolutionary War, 19 

Eice, S. F., 229 

Eichardson, William. 224 

Eichardson, Prof. W. C, 251 

Eichmond. 124 

Eiley, Eev. Benj. F., 257 

Eoberts, Dr. W., 151 

Eock Landing, 29 

Eock Eun, 132 

Eockv Ford, 133 

Eoddcv, General P. D., 114, 115 

Eodesr General E. E., 116 

Eoman Catholics, 174 

Eome, Ga., 1.32, 135 

Eosecrans. 126, 128, 132 

Eovicn, 66 

Eoyal Bank of Paris, 17 

Eussell, Colonel G. C, 54 

Eussia, 76 

Eyan, Father A. J., 26, 243-246 



INDEX. 



283 



St. Domingo, 14 

St. Joseph's College, 160 

St. Mark's, 29 

St. Stephens, 20, 45, 58, 59, 61, 62, 205, 

209, 210 
St. Stephens' Academy, 152 
.St. Vincent's Hospital, Id'.:, 
Saffold, Eeuben, 142 
Samford, W. J., 227. 228 
Sampson, Adm'l, 226 
Sanders, George N., 136 
San ford, J. W. A., 220 
Sanford, Thaddeus, 26, 256 
Sansom, Miss Emma, 132-135 
San Lucar, 7 
Santiago, 125, 227 
Santiago Bay, 226 
Sargent, Winthrop. 205, 206 
Saunders, J. E., 256 
Sauvolle, 14 
Savannah Eiver, 28 
School for Negro Deaf, Dumb, and 

Blind, 179 
Schools, History of 151-163 
Scott & Bibb Company, 200 
Scott, Dred, 97 
Scott, Fort, 55 
Scott, General W., 214 
Screws, W. W., 242 
Seay, Thomas, 223 
Seekaboo, 35 
Sehoy, 27, 34 
Seibels, John J., 215 
Seine, 66 
Seminole War, 55 
Seminoles, 29, 30, 32, 33, 49 
Semmes, Adm'l R., 26, 118-124 
Semmes' literary works, 124 
Sequatchee Valfey, 127 
Seven Pines, Battle of, 113 
Seward, Senator, 96 
Sharpsburg, 77, 117 
Sheffield, 186, 196 
Shelley, Charles M., 227 
Shenandoah, 123 

Sherman, General W. T., 128-130 
Shiloh, 113, 117, 126 
Shorter, J. G., 217 
Shortridge, G. D., 79 
Simms, William Gilmore, 238, 239 
Sims, Dr. J. Marion, 180 
Slatter, Mrs., 81 
Sloss, Eev. J. L., 152 
Smith, Carlos G., 157 
Smith, Dr. E. A.. 157, 252 
Smith, H. F., 114 
Smith, James, 45-46 



Smith, Dr. Joseph E., 190 

Smith, E. H., 26 

Smith, Wm. H., 132-135, 141, 142, 220 

Smith, William E., 81, 100, 108 109 

157, 219, 237, 254-256 
South View, 160 

Spain, 7, 18, 19, 20, 21, 28, 203-206 
Spaniard, 8-11, 29, 30, 204 
Spanish, 7, 9-13, 61 
Spanish Fort, 23, 24 
Spanish- American War, 226, 227 
Stafford, Mrs., 162 
Stal lings, Jesse F., 227 
Star Spangled Banner, 213 
State Bank, 84-88 
Steele, I. A., 227 
Steele, General F., 24 
Stephens, A. H., Ill 
Sterling, Mount, 165 
Stevens, Thaddeus, 137-139 
Stewart, George N., 22 
Stirling, Captain, 18 
Stokes, Mr., 56 
Stoneman, General, 128 
Streight, A. D., 114, 132-135 
Strother, Elizabeth and Sarah, 58 
Stuart, A. H. H., 160 
Sulphur Trestle, 115 
Sumner, Charles, 1.37-139 
Sumter, Countv, 166 
Sumter, Fort, ill, 112, 119 
Supreme Court, 26 
Swayne, General Wager, 139 

Talladega, 54 

Tallahassee, 9 

Tallapoosa Eiver, 10, 16, 34, 54 

Tallase, 10 

Tallassee Falls, 11 

Tallassees, 30 

Talle, 9 

Tallesahatche, 51 

Tallmadge, 106 

Tallyrand, 31 

Tammany, 29 

Taney, Chief Justice U. S., 97 

Tate, Colonel, 28, 34 

Tate, David, 35 

Taylor, George W., 148 

Taylor, Hannis, 26, 242, 252 

Taylor, Judge J. M., 73 

Taylor, Eichard, 58 

Taylor, Samuel, 210 

Taylor, Sarah Knox, 58 

Taylor, President Zachary, 58, 96 

Tecumseh, 35, 39, 43 

Tennessee, 22, 184 



284 



INDEX. 



Tennessee Eiver, 127, 128 

Terry, N., 87, 215 

Thomas, 193 

Thomas, Ala., Reserves, 23 

Thomas, General George, 24, 128 

Thompson, Jacob, 136 

Thompson's Creek. 51 

Timber Belt, 186, 201, 202 

Titus, James, 209, 210 

Tohopeka, 54 

Tombiojbee Judicial District, 207 

Tombigbee Eiver, 10, 21, 61 

Tombigbee Settlements, 39, 58 

Tonti, 16 

Tookabatcha, 27, 30, 34 

Toombs, General Robert, 108, 160 

Toulmin, Frances, 62 

Toulmin, Harrv, 22, 26, 62, 63, 68, 

207, 235 
Toulmin, John, 68 
Toulouse, Fort, 16, 28, 55 
Tracy Battery, 23, 24 
Transylvania University, 207 
Treaty of Fort Confederation, 206 
Treaty of Peace, 55 
Tucker, Beverly, 136 
Tuomey, Michael, 159, 187 
Turkeytown, 135 
Turner, B. L., 147 
Turner, Jack, 147, 148 
Tusculum, 172 
Tuscumbia, Courtland and Decatur 

Railway, 212 
Tuskahoma, 60 
Tuskaloosa, 78, 84, 196 
Tuskaloosa Female College, 160, 173 
Tutwiler, Prof. Henry, 160, 162 
Tutwiler, Miss Julia S., 162, 179, 257, 

259 
Twickenham, 208 
Tyler, Fort, 116 
Tyler, General, 116 
Tyler, President John, 75, 92, 100 

University of Alabama, 155-159 
Upton, General, 115 

Veknon, Mount, 45 
Vicksburg, 218 
Virginia, 13, 22, 57, 77 

Waddell, Captain. 123 
Wahalak, 148 
Wakefield, 207 
Walden, George S., 156 
Walker, 22 
Walker, A. J., 156, 229 



I Walker, John W., 75 
Walker, Tandy, 62, 63 

Walker, William A.. Sr., 190 

Waller, C. E., 227 

War, 112-117 
I Warrior River, 12 
i Washington Academy, 152 

Washington, Booker T., 145, 149 

Washington City, 40 

Washington County, 21, 166, 205 

Washington. General, 30, 106 

Watts, T. H., 217, 218 

Weatherford, Charles, 34 

Weatherford, John, 35 

Weatherford, William, 34-38, 49, 55 

Webster, D., 48, 73, 94, 97, 101 

Wellborn, General William, 214 

Welles, Gideon, 124 

West End, 193 

West Point U. S. Military Academy. 
125 

West, Rev. Anson, 257 

Western or Indian Company, 17 

Wetmore, T. B., 239 

Wetumpka, 16, 203, 214 

Wetumpka Argus, 91 

Wheeler, General Joseph, 125-131, 242 

Whitaker, Rev. W. C, 257 

White, General, 51, 53 

White Bluflf, 68, 69 
I Whiting, John, 88 

Whitney, Mrs. M. C, 62 

Wilderness, Battle of, 113 
: Wilkinson, General James, 206, 207 

Willbanks, 31 

Willett, Colonel Marinus, 29 

Williams College, 89 

Williams, Governor Robert, 208, 209 

Wilmer, Bishop R. H., 24, 251 

Wilmot Proviso, 96 
: Wilson, General J. H., 115, 116, 136,218 

Wilson, Mrs. A. E.. 26. 248, 249 

Winchester, Battle of, 113 

Winslow, Captain, 123 

Winston, Governor J. A., 152, 216 

Withers, General J. M., 22, 26, 113, 252 
j Woodlawn, 193 
! Woodruflf, Lewis T., 22 
I Woods, Rev. Alva, 155, 157 

Woodward, General T. S., 36, 52, 1^00 

Woolfolk, Major, 47 

Wyman, Prof. William S., 157, 159, 
250, 251 

Yancey, B. C, 90 

Yancey, William L., 89-98, 101, 108,109 

Yazoo frauds, 205 



Hta^ 







MODEL TEXT-BOOKS. 



CHASE <& STUARTS CLASSICAL SERIES. 

COMPRISING 

First Year iiv Latin, 

A Latin Grarmnar, 

A Latin Reader, 
C(Bsar*s Cortzmentaries , 

First Sijc Boohs of Mneid, 

Virgil's Eclogues and Georgics, 
Cicero's Select Orations, 
Horace's Odes, Satires, and Epistles, 
Selections from Horace, with Lexicon, 
Sallust's Catiline et Jugurtha, 

Cicero De Senectute, et de Amicitia, 
Cornelius J^epos, 
Cicero's Select Letters, Cicero de Officiis, 

Cicero's Tusculan Disputations, 

Cicero de Oratore, Juvenal, 

Terence, Tacitus, 

Ovid> Pliny, Livy. 

; ' 4 

S =W 



Hart's Composition and Rhetoric. 

New and Eevised Edition. 

For nearly a third of a century the original edition of this work 
was the standard school text-book on the subject ; there are few 
schools in the country in which it has not been used. Its popu- 
larity was wide-spread and lasting, and was due to the mani- 
fest merit of the book and its remarkable adaptation to the 
practical wants of students. 

The present revision of the book was made by Dr. James 
Morgan Hart, Professor of Rhetoric and English Philology in 
Cornell University, son of the author of the original work. The 
revision was inspired not only by the desire to perpetuate the 
literary life-work of his father, who was in his day an acknowl- 
edged leader in education, but also by the sincerest desire to 
guide, in a friendly spirit, the youth of the present day. 

In its new form, Hart's Composition and Ehetoric is 
more nearly in accord with the views and the teachings of 
the leading educators of the day, and with the spirit of peda- 
gogical progress in this branch of study, than any other text- 
book on the subject. We believe that the work will commend 
itself to every progressive teacher. 

Easy Lessons in IN^atnral Philosophy. 

For children. By Edwin J. Houston, Ph. D. 

Intermediate Lessons in Natural Philosophy. 

By Edwin J. Houston, Ph. D. 

Elements of Natural Philosophy. 

New and Revised Edition. By Edwin J. Houston, Ph.D. 

While all portions of the book show the advances which have 
been recently made in the different branches of physics, in 
none have these advances been so marked as in the general 
subjects of electricity and magnetism, which have been thor- 
oughly brought up to date in an elementary manner. In all 
these changes the author has endeavored to present the matter 
in such a form as will permit it to be of practical use in the 
school-room. 

This book is designed for use in Graded Schools, High Schools, 
Academies, Seminaries, Normal Schools, etc. It gives the ele- 
ments of the science in a concise form and in logical sequence, 
so that the book forms a system of Natural Philosophy, and 
not a mere collection of- disconnected facts. It is fully "up 
to the times" in every respect, and gives full descriptions of 
the most important discoveries made in Physical Science. 
The Electric Light, the Telephone, the Microphone, the 
Phonograph, the X-Eays, etc., are all described and illus- 
trated. Teachers will be well pleased with this book. It 
will give satisfaction wherever introduced. 



A Haud-Book of Mytlioloj'y. 

By S. A. Edwakds, Formerly Teacher of Mythology in the 
Girls Normal School, Philadelphia. 

300^ Practice Words. 

By J. Willis Westlake, A. M., Late Professor in State Normal 
School, Millersville,Pa. Contains lists of Familiar Words often 
Misspelled, Difficult Words, Homophonous Words, Words often 
Confounded, Eules for Spelling, etc. 

In the Scliool-Room ; 

Or, Chapters in the Philosophy of Education. Gives 
the experience of nearly forty years spent in school- room work. 
By John S. Hart, LL.D. 

Our Bodies. 

By Charles K. Mills, M. D., and A. H. Leuf, M. D. A series 
of five charts for teaching Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene, 
and showing the Effects of Alcohol on the Human Body. 

The Model Pocket-Register and Grade-Book. 

A Roll-Book, Record, and Grade-Book combined. Adapted to 
all grades of Classes, whether in College, Academy, Seminary, 
High or Primary School. 

The Model School Diary. 

Designed as an aid in securing the co-operation of pji''*^\its. It 
consists of a Record of the Attendance, DepOx^.-iicnt, Recita- 
tions, etc., of the Scholar for every day. At the close of thfe 
week it is to be sent to the parent or guardian for examination 
and signature. 

The Model Monthly Report. 

Similar to the Model School Diary, excepting that it is intended 
for a Monthly instead of a Weekly report of the Attendance, 
Recitations, etc. of the pupil. 

The Model Roll-Book, No. 1. 

The Model Roll-Book, No. 2. 

The Model Roll-Book, No. 1, is so ruled as to show at a 
glance the record of a class for three months, allowing five 
weeks to each month, with spacing for weekly, monthly, and 
quarterly summary, and a blank space for remarks at the end j 
of the quarter. 

The Model Roll-Book, No. 2, is arranged on the same 
general plan, as regards spacing, etc., excepting that each page 
is arranged for a month of five weeks; but, in addition, the 
names of the studies generally pursued in schools are printed 
immediately following the name of the pupil, making it more 



convenient when it is desirable to have a record of all the 
studies pursued by a pupil brought together in one place. 

Manuals for Teachers. 

A Series of Hand-Books comprising five volumes — vi;!: 

1. On the Cultivation of the Senses. 
a. On the Cultivation of the Memory. 

3. On the Use of Words. 

4. On Discipline. 

5. On Class Teaching, 



We shall be gratified to have teachers correspond with lis. We offer 
some of the best of Modern Text-Boolcs, and shall be glad at any time 
to make liberal arrangements for their introduction. 
Please address 

Eldredge & Brother, 

17 North Seventh Street, 

PHILADELPHIA. 




